Early life forms on Earth may have been able to generate metabolic energy from sunlight using a purple-pigmented molecule called retinal that possibly predates the evolution of chlorophyll and photosynthesis. If retinal has ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 16, 2018
0
300
A new study suggests that rapid cooling within the Earth's mantle through plate tectonics played a major role in the development of the first life forms, which in turn led to the oxygenation of the Earth's atmosphere. The ...
Earth Sciences
Jun 7, 2018
1
138
Rice University petrologists who recreated hot, high-pressure conditions from 60 miles below Earth's surface have found a new clue about a crucial event in the planet's deep past.
Earth Sciences
Apr 25, 2017
8
228
Adolescents face many challenging decisions. So, do consumers.
Economics & Business
Apr 18, 2017
1
36
(Phys.org)—A team of researchers working at a dig site in Scotland has found tetrapod fossils dated to approximately 15 million years after the Devonian mass extinction—a time period experts in the field have referred ...
Fluctuations in extreme weather events, such as heavy rains and droughts, are affecting ecosystems in unexpected ways—creating "winners and losers" among plant species that humans depend upon for food.
Environment
Sep 28, 2015
4
27
Like a master painter who uses the same brush techniques to continually create original works of art, evolution has produced unique species to fill new or vacated ecological functions by tinkering with just a few basic body ...
Evolution
Mar 4, 2015
3
66
Geologists from Trinity College Dublin have rewritten the evolutionary history books by finding that oxygen-producing life forms were present on Earth some 3 billion years ago – a full 60 million years earlier than previously ...
Earth Sciences
Sep 4, 2014
9
0
Habitable conditions on Earth will be possible for at least another 1.75 billion years – according to astrobiologists at the University of East Anglia.
Astronomy
Sep 18, 2013
28
1
(Phys.org) —A team of researchers with members from the U.S. Hungary, France and Spain has found that birds that have proportionally bigger brains tend to experience less stress than those with proportionally smaller brains. ...
