Strongest hints yet of biological activity outside the solar system
17 April 2025Astronomers have detected the most promising signs yet of a possible biosignature outside the solar system, although they remain cautious.
Astronomers have detected the most promising signs yet of a possible biosignature outside the solar system, although they remain cautious.
The discovery, published in Nature, opens a new window on early animal evolution.
Researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Western Australia have uncovered the importance of hydrothermal vents, similar to underwater geysers, in supplying minerals that may have been a key ingredient in the emergence of early life.
How did the molecular building blocks for life end up on Earth? One long-standing theory is that they could have been delivered by comets. Now, researchers from the University of Cambridge have shown how comets could deposit similar building blocks to other planets in the galaxy.
A new postgraduate programme will train researchers to understand life's origins, search for habitable planets and consider the most profound question of all: are we alone?
Scientists from the University of Cambridge, ETH Zurich, Harvard University, and the University of Chicago have founded the Origins Federation, which will advance our understanding of the emergence and early evolution of life, and its place in the cosmos.
The problem of how phosphorus became a universal ingredient for life on Earth may have been solved by researchers from the University of Cambridge and the University of Cape Town, who have recreated primordial seawater containing the element in the lab.
With a £10 million grant awarded by the Leverhulme Trust, the University of Cambridge is to establish a new research centre dedicated to exploring the nature and extent of life in the Universe.
The University of Cambridge is creating a new research initiative, bringing together physicists, chemists, biologists, mathematicians and earth scientists to answer fundamental questions on the origin and nature of life in the Universe.
Scientists have identified a group of planets outside our solar system where the same chemical conditions that may have led to life on Earth exist.