Scientists are trying to understand how complex life emerged on Earth about 2 billion years ago. Our microbial ancestors could be the key.

The tiniest life forms are also among Earth’s toughest, from near-invincible tardigrades to extremophilic microbes that ...

Research led by the University of Auckland has cast light on the evolutionary origins of one of nature's first motors, which developed 3.5 billion to 4 billion years ago to propel bacteria. Scientists ...

Around 2.3 billion years ago, the Great Oxygenation Event (GOE) marked a major turning point in Earth’s history. The increase ...

In the oceans and on land, scientists are discovering rare, transitional organisms that bridge the gap between Earth’s simplest cells and today’s complex ones. By Carl Zimmer A flurry of new studies ...

Humans have it. So does Drosophila. But not yeast. That "it" is a small pause at the start of gene activity—a brief molecular halt that may have helped life evolve from simple cells to complex animals ...

In orbit above Earth, scientists are watching some of the strangest life forms in the universe rewrite the rules of evolution in real time. Viruses that prey on bacteria, along with the bacteria ...