About 4 billion years ago, Earth began to show signs of the conditions that allowed the first cells to take hold and populate ...

The Miller-Urey hypothesis is based on a famous 1952 experiment in which researchers successfully formed these organic ...

While previous studies say volcanic or atmospheric lightning may have triggered chemical reactions that created organic ...

New research sheds light on the earliest days of the earth's formation and potentially calls into question some earlier assumptions in planetary science about the early years of rocky planets.

Just like today, early life on Earth was therefore dependent on nitrogen fixation by microbes. In other words, on their conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into nitrogen compounds that living ...

Since simulations of Earth's mantle focus mostly on present-day solid-state conditions, Boukaré had to develop a novel model to explore the early days of Earth when the mantle was much hotter and ...

"Given how rare such evidence is due to [Earth's] geological recycling processes, this is a major breakthrough in understanding early Earth." Geologists have discovered the world's oldest known ...

Earth was so cold at the time that the oceans ... all of which may have contributed to the early development of life, the University of Portsmouth said in a release. Kirkland said the research ...