The origin of the first living molecules on our planet has long been debated. However, recent experiments are revealing new ...

The original box containing archived spark discharge samples prepared by Stanley Miller in 1958. For unknown reasons, Miller never analyzed these even though this is his first experiment using ...

RNA probably came before DNA, serving as the storehouse of genetic information and driving chemical reactions; a ...

For more than a century, the idea that life might have arrived on our planet from elsewhere in the cosmos sat at the fringes ...

The new findings strengthen the "RNA world" hypothesis that describes how the first life on Earth could have used RNA instead ...

“Microlightning” exchanges among water droplets could have sparked the building blocks of life on ancient Earth, new research finds. Here, a wave breaks on White Sand Beach on the Thai island of Koh ...

A substance poisonous to humans—hydrogen cyanide—may have helped create the seeds of life on Earth. At cold temperatures, ...

The origin of life is surely one of the most important questions in biology. How did inanimate molecules give rise to the ...

Building on the original Miller-Urey experiments, new work shows that some ingredients of the "primordial soup" came from a thoroughly unexpected place. The results may have implications for our ...

GREENBELT, Md. – Lightning and gases from volcanic eruptions could have given rise to the first life on Earth, according to a new analysis of samples from a classic origin-of-life experiment by NASA ...

In the 1931 movie “Frankenstein,” Dr. Henry Frankenstein howling his triumph was an electrifying moment in more ways than one. As massive bolts of lightning and energy crackled, Frankenstein’s monster ...