For the first time, satellite imagery reveals thick Martian salt deposits scattered across the planet's southern surface, which one planetary scientist claims could be sites of ancient life. The mats of sodium chloride — the same taste-enhancing mineral found on your kitchen table — serve as more evidence of Mars' watery past, and researchers think the briney pools that made them could... read full post picked by AutumnLotus 5 months ago

Now, a team of researchers working in New Mexico has found traces of life inside salty halite crystals. The discovery is "an invaluable resource for understanding the evolutionary record [of Earth] over a geological time frame." picked by AutumnLotus 3 weeks ago

Cellulose dating back 253 million years — along with some possible ancient DNA — has been found in salt crystals from an underground nuclear waste dump in southern New Mexico. picked by AutumnLotus 4 months ago

We could have alien origins, say scientists who sent fossilized microscopic life-forms into space and back inside an artificial meteorite. The researchers attached the baseball-size rock to the outside of the European Space Agency's Foton M3 spacecraft to test whether biological material could survive the round-trip journey. picked by AutumnLotus 9 months ago

Scientists have found life about twice as far below the seafloor as has ever been documented before. A coring sample off the coast of Newfoundland turned up single-celled microbes living in searing temperatures about a mile (1,626 meters) below the seafloor. picked by AutumnLotus 3 months ago

Researchers studying life in the deep subsurface of our planet have discovered a unique bacterium living 1 mile (1.7 km) below the Earth's surface. The tiny bacteria live in a community of subsurface microbes inhabiting a South African platinum mine. picked by AutumnLotus 4 weeks ago

Researchers have thawed ice estimated to be at least a million years old from above Lake Vostok, an ancient lake that lies hidden more than two miles beneath the frozen surface of Antarctica. The scientists will now examine the eons-old water for microorganisms, and then through novel genomic techniques, try to figure out how these tiny, living “time capsules” survived the ages in tota... read full post picked by AutumnLotus 9 months ago

By sticking microbes to the outside of the International Space Station, Japanese researchers aim to test the "panspermia" theory that comets and asteroids can spread life between planets.

The Japanese experiment is called Tanpopo, Japanese for "dandelion", after the plant's fluffy seeds, which travel long distances on the wind. picked by AutumnLotus 4 months ago

Fossil microbes found along an iron-rich river in Spain reveal how signs of life could be preserved in minerals found on Mars. The discovery may help to equip the next generation Mars rover with the tools it would need to find evidence of past life on the planet. picked by AutumnLotus 4 months ago

Geologists have discovered 1.43 billion-year-old fossils of deep-sea microbes, providing more evidence that life may have originated on the bottom of the ocean. picked by AutumnLotus 1 year ago

Experts from high-ranking UK universities and research institutes expect that the first evidence of primitive alien life, such as microbes and vegetation, will emerge within 10 years, with more substantial finds following future space missions. picked by DrNothing 1 year ago

Organic compounds contain carbon and hydrogen and form the building blocks of all life on Earth. By analyzing organic material and minerals in the Martian meteorite Allan Hills 84001, scientists have shown for the first time that building blocks of life formed on Mars early in its history. Previously, scientists have thought that organic material in ALH 84001 was brought to Mars by meteorite impac... read full post picked by AutumnLotus 8 months ago

Flash back three or four billion years — Earth is a hot, dry and lifeless place. All is still. Without warning, a meteor slams into the desert plains at over ten thousand miles per hour. With it, this violent collision may have planted the chemical seeds of life on Earth. picked by AutumnLotus 4 months ago

Previous research has considered the possibility of micro organisms existing in Venus's atmosphere despite extreme temperatures on its surface. But two scientists at the Cardiff Centre for Astrobiology say microbes from Venus could actually be blown into the Earth's atmosphere by solar winds. picked by deEPCHIll 4 weeks ago

If you are like me, then you don’t need many reasons to go see Hot Fuzz when it opens here in the states this weekend. picked by sholom22 1 year ago

The Red Planet was too salty to sustain life for much of its history, according to the latest evidence gathered by rovers on the Martian surface. picked by mahler87 6 months ago

A new interpretation of data from NASA's Viking landers indicates that 0.1% of the Martian soil tested could have a biological origin. picked by AutumnLotus 12 months ago

Some bacterial cells can swim, morph into new forms and even become dangerously virulent - all without initial involvement of DNA. Researchers describe how bacteria accomplish this amazing feat - and in doing so provide a glimpse of what the earliest forms of life on Earth may have looked like. picked by AutumnLotus 1 month ago

Scientists have known for some time that most major groups of complex animals appeared in the fossils record during the Cambrian Explosion, a seemingly rapid evolutionary event that occurred 542 million years ago. Now paleontologists have identified another explosive evolutionary event that occurred about 33 million years earlier among macroscopic life forms unrelated to the Cambrian animals. They... read full post picked by AutumnLotus 8 months ago

Tiny microbes beneath the sea floor, distinct from life on the Earth's surface, may account for one-tenth of the Earth's living biomass, according to an interdisciplinary team of researchers, but many of these minute creatures are living on a geologic timescale. picked by maxriter 4 weeks ago