It may seem easy to distinguish whether something is alive or not. You are alive, as is your teacher, and the trees you see on your way to school. Your desk and chair are not alive, and neither are ...

A chemical compound essential to all living things has been synthesised in a lab in conditions that could have occurred on early Earth, suggesting it played a role at the outset of life, finds a new ...

One of the chemicals considered essential to life on Earth may have originated in outer space, researchers have found. Nitrogen compounds, including ammonium salts, may have made their way to Earth ...

If you’ve ever been on a cave tour where the guide shines a black light, you’ve seen the walls and formations glow. The stunning fluorescence is often the result of impurities trapped in calcite rocks ...

(CNN) — Researchers have detected organic compounds and minerals necessary for life in unprecedented samples collected from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu, adding evidence to the idea that asteroids ...

Looking for molecular evidence of life on other worlds is tricky, but a test based on the reactivity of carbon compounds ...