The Curiosity rover has discovered hexagonal patterns in ancient mud on the Red Planet, which hints at cyclical wet and dry periods and boosts chances Mars once hosted life
The closest living relatives of the bacteria that moved into the cells of a larger organism more than a billion years ago and eventually became mitochondria powering our cells may have been identified living in hot springs
Primitive steroids found in ancient Australian rocks may have been made by the earliest complex cells before they evolved into animals, plants, fungi and algae
The United Arab Emirates is following its successful Mars orbiter with a mission 10 times as long as it looks to the asteroid belt for clues about how organic molecules arrived on Earth.