Astronomers have long known where water is first formed in the universe and how it ends up on planets, asteroids and comets. A recent discovery has finally answered what happens in between.
Academic rigor, journalistic flair
Articles on Origin of life
Displaying 1 - 20 of 36 articles
Some physicists think we live in a multiverse, surrounded by universes not quite like our own. What does that mean for life?
In the deep, dark ocean, sunlight-deprived bacteria turn to different sources of energy: dissolved hydrogen and carbon monoxide.
Ancient rocks from Western Australia may not contain the world’s oldest fossils – but they do preserve organic compounds that may have formed the raw materials for the first living cells.
Within hours of its landing, samples of the Winchcombe meteorite had been recovered and its origins tracked back beyond Mars to the asteroid belt.
A study has found that microorganisms living on Mars billions of years ago may have left the planet uninhabitable.
The chemical reaction that forms essential biomolecules like proteins and DNA normally doesn’t occur in the presence of water. Microdroplets provide a unique environment that make it possible.
We may be on the brink of discovering whether water and organic material, which enabled life on Earth, came from asteroids.
Volcanic eruptions on the seafloor are mysterious, but new research provides fresh clues.
It looks like a broken barbeque brickette, but the newfound meteorite is a capsule of the Solar System’s history that could reveal the secrets of the origin of life.
If the building blocks of life were present at the time that Earth was born, this could mean life is common in the universe.
Unlike our hellish neighbour Venus, Earth was far enough from the Sun for liquid water to form and create a more hospitable environment for life.
How ancient microbes survived in a world without oxygen has been a mystery. Scientists discovered a living microbial mat that uses arsenic instead of oxygen for photosynthesis and respiration.
We don’t fully understand viruses, and we’re still trying to understand life.
Scientists have for the first time created shown how the precursor to living cells could have formed around deep-sea hydrothermal vents.
Humans evolved through a series of highly unlikely events – so finding another intelligence like us would be like winning the lottery many times over.
Current plans for lunar exploration may end up destroying ancient, genetic samples from Earth that have ended up on the moon.
Genetic data has helped scientists develop new estimates for the origin and evolution of life on Earth.
New research suggests life on Earth became more diverse because of a change in biology related to stem cells, not just rising oxygen levels.
Dust can be instructive. The analysis of those collected around the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko provided new information on the history of the solar system.
Top contributors
-
Professor of Planetary and Space Sciences, The Open University
-
Postdoctoral research associate, University of Oxford
-
Professor of Astrobiology, UNSW Sydney
-
Professor of Astrophysics, University of Sydney
-
Associate professor, Australian National University
-
Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern Queensland
-
Senior Lecturer in Physics, University of Hull
-
Lecturer, School of Geosciences, Monash University
-
Professor of Science Communication and Chemistry, University of Hull
-
Reader in chemistry, University of Leeds
-
Professor of Planetary Science, University of Leicester
-
Professor of Applied Mathematical Physics, University of Southampton
-
Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science and Planetary Exploration, University of Stirling
-
Director of the Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology, Newcastle University
-
Australian Research Council Future Fellow, The University of Western Australia
