Scientists provide fresh insights on the origins of life, presenting compelling evidence supporting the 'RNA World' hypothesis. The study unveils an RNA enzyme that can make accurate copies of other ...

For decades, many scientists have relied on the "hard steps" model to suggest that intelligent life is rare — the improbable result of a series of unlikely evolutionary leaps. But new research by ...

The Wheatley Institute and the BYU College of Life Sciences hosted Dr. Samuel T. Wilkinson from Yale for a speaking event on Thursday, Oct. 17. Wilkinson is an accomplished professor of psychiatry at ...

Assembly Theory is a way to understand how the complexity of life emerged through a mechanism of “self-assembly.” It could explain how life formed on Earth—or other planets—via the shortest path to ...

Humanity may not be extraordinary but rather the natural evolutionary outcome for our planet and likely others, according to a new model for how intelligent life developed on Earth. The model, which ...

The number of known proteins is infinitely small in comparison to the universe of possible proteins, which could in theory be realized. Yet these known proteins are the only major training ground for ...

The goal of understanding how inert molecules gave rise to life is one step closer, according to researchers who have created a system of RNA molecules that can partly replicate itself. They say it ...

A popular model of evolution concludes that it was incredibly unlikely for humanity to evolve on Earth, and that extraterrestrial intelligence is vanishingly rare. But as experts on the entangled ...

A composite view of the Earth constructed by NASA from multiple satellite images Editor at Large Human evolution is a story writ slow. It’s been about 3.8 billion years since life on Earth emerged and ...

A tree of life based on genes from across the nuclear genome and containing nearly 60% of all angiosperm genera unveils the complex evolutionary history of flowering plants. This tree both ...

There's a difference between knowing that something evolved and understanding why it stuck around. Most of the systems running your body right now weren't designed for the life you're actually living.