A bacterium famous for shrugging off extreme radiation has now survived the violent shock of a simulated asteroid impact, adding hard experimental evidence to the idea that microbes could travel ...

Scientists are trying to understand how complex life emerged on Earth about 2 billion years ago. Our microbial ancestors could be the key.

Some bacteria can take a punch that would crush a submarine. In a new set of impact tests, one desert microbe, Deinococcus ...

In an effort to explain how life started on Earth billions of years ago, some scientists have suggested that microbes — or ...

Eukaryotes—the building blocks of complex life—appeared on Earth 1.7 billion years ago, and now scientists have solved a ...

"Life might actually survive being ejected from one planet and moving to another." ...

A super-tough microbe may be able to survive being blasted from Mars into space—opening the door to interplanetary life transfer.

Scientists demonstrated that an Earthly extremophile might withstand being ejected from the Red Planet on debris spewed into ...

Unseen but all around us, the air we breathe in enclosed spaces is crucial to our health and well-being. Indoor air is not simply outdoor air that has been run through a filter: it has its own ...

A new discovery raises hope that plants can fertilize themselves in close collaboration with soil bacteria and without artificial fertilizers.

Microplastics in soil can create tiny microbial hotspots, potentially reshaping soil health and the long-term sustainability ...