Scientists are trying to understand how complex life emerged on Earth about 2 billion years ago. Our microbial ancestors could be the key.

Scientists think they’ve found a way to investigate the creation of cell membranes and DNA genomes that gave rise to the last universal common ancestor.

How did life begin on Earth? While scientists have theories, they don't yet fully understand the precise chemical steps that led to biology, or when the first primitive life forms appeared. But what ...

Before sunlight ever reached the planet, another force may have sparked life—electricity. Deep beneath the ocean floor, ancient hydrothermal vents might have generated natural electric fields strong ...

University of Alberta geochemists have discovered a missing piece to one of the great mysteries of science—the origin of life on Earth. That fateful spark is believed to have occurred on the ocean's ...

Here’s what you will learn when you read this story: Abiogenesis—the emergence of life from nonliving organics—is the leading theory regarding how life spawned on Earth, but it is being questioned.

For more than a century, the idea that life might have arrived on our planet from elsewhere in the cosmos sat at the fringes of science. Now a mix of genetic clues, asteroid samples and tough little ...