Could aliens exist without DNA? Explore the complex role of DNA and its alternatives in the universe. As we uncover the ...

This video starts with a simple question — does life really need DNA? — and then turns it into something much bigger. From RNA worlds and TNA protocells to exotic XNAs, methane-compatible chemistries, ...

Something incredible has been hiding in Mars’s frozen deserts. It’s taken over 10 years for one robot to pick it up. But it took an engineering feat and a high-stakes gamble to bring it to light. An ...

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed a large-scale screening approach that identifies ...

All living organisms are known to inherit genes, DNA sequences that contain instructions for producing specific proteins and ...

The US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has developed new portable field devices that will allow soldiers to identify unknown ...

Some of these approaches may show promise, but new research indicates much of today’s AI is even more easily duped by false ...

A rare visitor from another star system prompted SETI to hunt for alien technology, but the mysterious object appears to be a ...

Scientists are calling for a lunar quarantine facility where samples from Mars, the Moon, and beyond would be examined before being brought to Earth. They warn that even a tiny alien microorganism ...

Astronomers have detected the first true sugar molecule in the space between stars — a four-carbon compound called erythrulose — and its presence narrows one of origin-of-life research's most ...

The latest discovery of nucleotides on an asteroid is making scientists rethink the story of how life got going ...

The search for life beyond Earth has always been full of surprises. Strange radio signals have sparked excitement. Odd gases on distant worlds have raised questions. Even ordinary objects have been ...