Isotopic Evidence Shows Life Could Have Flourished on Earth 3.2 Billion Years Ago
New research from the University of Washington found evidence that life was pulling nitrogen out of the air and converting it into a form that…
Evolution
Barb Geometry of Asymmetrical Feathers Sheds Light on Evolution of Flight
By taking a closer look at feathers representing the evolutionary transition from dinosaurs to modern birds, Yale researchers demonstrate a better understand of how feathers…
Scientists Discover the Greatest Absence of Evolution Ever Reported
Scientists from UCLA have discovered an organism that hasn’t evolved in more than 2 billion years. An international team of scientists has discovered the greatest…
Low Atmospheric Oxygen Levels Delayed Rise of Animals
A new study reveals that oxygen levels during the “boring billion” period were only 0.1% of what they are today, providing the first evidence that…
Research Reveals Evolution Used Similar “Toolkits” to Shape Flies, Worms, and Humans
Several newly published studies reveal that flies, worms and humans share ancient patterns of gene expression. Although separated by hundreds of millions of years of…
Theorists Show How Energy Landscapes Dominate Both Evolution and Folding of Proteins
A team of biophysicists at Rice University used computer models to show that the energy landscape involved in the long-term evolution of proteins is essentially…
New Study Presents “Water World” Theory for the Emergence of Life
A new study describes how electrical energy naturally produced at the sea floor might have given rise to life, assembling decades of field, laboratory and…
New Research Tests Theory that Life Originated at Deep Sea Vents
New research from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution tests the theory that simple metabolic reactions near ancient seafloor hot springs enabled life as we know it…
Evidence That Organic Material Can Survive the Impact of a Meteorite
In a newly published study, researchers from the Natural History Museum provide the first evidence that any organic material, either inside a meteorite or already…
Rudimentary Form of Life Sidesteps Normal Replication Processes
Researchers from the University of Nottingham have shown that in some organisms the genetic switches that control DNA replication are unnecessary and that cells will…
Scientists Recreate Patterns of Oxygen Found in the Oldest Rocks in the Solar System
UC San Diego cosmochemists demonstrated that a chemical reaction, governed by known physical principles, can generate silicate dust with oxygen anomalies that match those found…
New Findings Challenge Assumptions about the Origins of Life
New research from biochemists at the UNC School of Medicine offers an intriguing new view on how life began, challenging current assumptions about the origins…
A Natural Example of a Functioning Gear Mechanism Discovered in an Insect
Scientists from the University of Cambridge have discovered a natural example of a functioning gear mechanism in an insect. Previously believed to be only man-made,…
Could Life on Earth Have Originated from Somewhere Else?
New research presented at the European Planetary Science Congress at UCL examines whether life forms would be able to survive an impact with the surface…
Earliest Known Iron Artifacts Were Made from Meteoritic Iron
Archaeologists from the University College London have discovered ancient Egyptian iron beads that were made from meteoritic iron, rather than iron ore. Researchers have shown…
DNA Study Reveals Clues about Primate Evolution
In a new DNA study, an international team of scientists reveal clues to human and ape evolution, finding that the evolutionary history of ancestral great…
New Study Links Expanding Human Population to Threats of Animal Extinction
A newly published study paints a grim outlook for the future of certain mammals and birds, suggesting that the average growing nation should expect at…
Study Suggests Life on Earth is the Result of Icy Comets
A newly published study suggests that life on earth may have started as a result of icy comets that crashed into Earth billions of years…
