A new study shows RNA can link to amino acids in water, revealing a simple reaction that may explain how life’s first proteins began.

The Earth formed over 4.6 billion years ago out of a mixture of dust and gas around the young sun. It grew larger thanks to countless collisions between dust particles, asteroids, and other ...

New research shows Earth formed dry and lifeless—until a chance cosmic collision delivered the ingredients needed for life.

How do scientists know how old Earth is? Learn how experts have measured Earth's age, and why it is more difficult to pinpoint an exact date.

Collisions with tiny planets and large moons would have flung material away from Earth but also helped grow the planet. For hundreds of millions of years after the moon formed, Earth was bombarded ...

Experiments on samples of iron and rock held at immense pressures have led to new ideas of how Earth's core formed.

Everyone wants to know the answer to how life began on Earth, but few people are as singularly focused on the question as Ramanarayanan Krishnamurthy. As a chemist at the California-based Scripps ...

The bodies that formed the Earth have isotopic natures that have so far remained unclear. Here Nicolas Dauphas shows that elements with differing affinities for metal can be used to decipher the ...