From space, Earth looks like an absolute paradise with deep ocean blues and verdant green vegetation covering every continent including Antarctica. But are we biased in thinking that any sort of ...

The story of life on Earth can’t be told without photosynthesis, the process by which plants (and some other lifeforms) convert sunlight into chemical energy. Now, a team of researchers has announced ...

A magnified image of a layer of microfossil, showing the fossilized imprint of several thylakoids, where photosynthesis takes place (Nature) (CN) — Scientists have discovered the oldest evidence of ...

Researchers at the University of Liège (ULiège) have identified microstructures in fossil cells that are 1.75 billion years old. These structures, called thylakoid membranes, are the oldest ever ...

Far below the reach of sunlight, in water cold enough to freeze most life in its tracks, scientists have found oxygen being ...

Bacterial evolution and oxygen adaptation: A timeline built from genomic, fossil, and chemical data. Colors show oxygen states: anaerobic (blue), aerobic (red), and proportion of aerobic lineages in ...

Stephen has degrees in science (Physics major) and arts (English Literature and the History and Philosophy of Science), as well as a Graduate Diploma in Science Communication. Stephen has degrees in ...

Researchers uncovered that trace compounds like nickel and urea may have delayed Earth’s oxygenation for millions of years. Experiments mimicking early Earth revealed how their concentrations ...

Could the chemical fingerprints of life really persist for billions of years, hidden in rocks reshaped by eons of heat and pressure? A new study says yes and the story of Earth’s biosphere begins far ...

Consider the possibility of alien plants. After all, plenty of exoplanets likely have conditions friendly to the development of plants, even if evolution there never makes it as far as complex ...

Scientists have helped to construct a detailed timeline for bacterial evolution, suggesting some bacteria used oxygen long before evolving the ability to produce it through photosynthesis. University ...