In high enough doses, hydrogen cyanide can kill an adult human in minutes, but the chemical may be the reason why we’re here ...

New research suggests that essential components of life may assemble in interstellar space long before planets or oceans ...

Our planet is unique for its ability to sustain abundant life. From studies of the rock record, scientists believe life had already emerged on Earth at least 3.5 billion years ago and probably much ...

Scientists may have discovered a reaction that provides the “missing link” to help explain how early life formed on Earth about 4 billion years ago. All living things contain ribonucleic acid, ...

A wild new theory has claimed the origins of life on Earth were delivered by aliens who were terraforming the planet into a habitable world billions of years ago. Robert Endres, a scientist from ...

New research suggests that amino acids, the fundamental components of life, may have arrived on Earth carried by interstellar dust grains, possibly contributing to the origins of life as we know it.

A giant impact on the early Earth could have brought the building blocks of RNA to our planet, which new research suggests could have quickly formed in the presence of compounds called borates. When ...

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Researchers are uncovering how a poisonous chemical could have helped life emerge.