Scientists at Yale and in Singapore have devised what may be the ultimate acid test — a comprehensive model for estimating the origins of Earth’s habitability, based in part on ocean acidity. The new ...

Billions of years ago, Earth’s atmosphere was hostile, with barely any oxygen and toxic conditions for life. Researchers from the Earth-Life Science Institute studied Japan’s iron-rich hot springs, ...

Earth was not always the blue-green world we know today: the early Earth's oxygen levels were about a million times lower than we now experience. There were no forests and no animals. For ancient ...

Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. We’ve pieced together a remarkably detailed timeline of ...