Can life begin on a moon without a sun
Free-Floating Planets, or as they are more commonly known, Rogue Planets, wander interstellar space completely alone. Saying there might be a lot of them...
Scientists stunned by rare great white shark sighting in Spanish waters
In April 2023, fishermen off Spain’s eastern coast made an unexpected and historic catch.
A juvenile great white shark, just over two meters long and...
Why so few planets can support life
Life needs more than water and the right temperature to exist.
New research suggests that only a small number of planets ever get the chemical...
Life’s ingredients may have formed in frozen space, not warm water, asteroid study suggests
Scientists studying material from the asteroid Bennu have uncovered new clues about how some of life’s most basic ingredients may have formed long before...
How microbes on rock surfaces control groundwater chemistry
Far below the Earth’s surface, deep inside cracks and pores in solid rock, vast communities of microorganisms are quietly at work.
These microscopic organisms are...
Why one of Earth’s most common ocean bacteria is surprisingly fragile
One of the most abundant living organisms on Earth may also be one of the most vulnerable.
A group of ocean bacteria known as SAR11,...
What an ancient jellyfish can teach us about the evolution of sleep
An upside-down jellyfish drifts in a shallow lagoon, rhythmically contracting its translucent bell.
By night that beat drops from roughly 36 pulses a minute to...
A 40-million-year-old ant hidden in Goethe’s amber still has stories to tell
More than 200 years after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s death, his curiosity about nature is still leading to new discoveries.
Scientists in Germany have now...
For the first time, scientists detect molecule critical to life in interstellar space
The chemical is known as thiepine, or 2,5-cyclohexadiene-1-thione (C₆H₆S), a ring-shaped sulfur-bearing hydrocarbon produced in biochemical reactions.
When examining the molecular cloud G+0.693–0.027, a star-forming...
How ancient microbial fossils reveal the earliest story of life on Earth
More than 3.5 billion years ago, Earth looked nothing like it does today.
The air contained no oxygen, the oceans were acidic and filled with...