Grab-and-go missions to asteroids have provided some of the most scientifically valuable samples since the Apollo ...

"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through these links." All life on Earth can be traced back to a Last Universal Common Ancestor, or LUCA. A new study suggests ...

In an investigation to find out what sparked life on Earth, researchers have discovered that RNA formed through surprisingly ...

A breakthrough experiment, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, offers compelling support for ...

The evolution of humans on Earth may not be entirely exceptional. That is because intelligent life is likely to form if certain planetary conditions are met, a new study suggests. This idea displaces ...

For decades, many scientists have relied on the "hard steps" model to suggest that intelligent life is rare — the improbable result of a series of unlikely evolutionary leaps. But new research by ...

They’re the building rocks of life. Analysis of debris from the nearly 5 billion-year-old asteroid Bennu suggests the ingredients to life on Earth were present in the early days of our solar system, ...

"We're arguing that intelligent life may not require a series of lucky breaks to exist." When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. The ...

For decades, scientists assumed that life on Earth emerged through a chain of highly improbable flukes. But a new theory suggests it may have instead arrived just in time. When you purchase through ...

New theory proposes that humans — and analogous life beyond Earth — may represent the probable outcome of biological and planetary evolution UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Humanity may not be extraordinary ...

A new model increases the probability of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, upending the decades-old “hard steps” theory that intelligent life was an incredibly improbable event on Earth. Are ...

Ben Woodcroft receives funding from the ARC. Adrián A. Davín does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has ...