New Atlas

Science Audio available

Fossil fats suggest animal life got started later than previously thought

Michael Irving March 6, 2019

In the world of palaeontology, new discoveries usually proclaim things are older than we previously thought. But new research out of the Max Planck Institute has found that animals probably arose later than is currently believed.

Rhizaria algae is now believed to be responsible for fossil fat molecules that have confused scientists ...

Biology Audio available

Synthetic DNA demonstrates just how weird aliens might be

Michael Irving February 21, 2019

Different conditions on different planets could have led life down paths that are completely … well, alien. To demonstrate, a NASA-funded study has successfully created a new synthetic genetic system that’s a viable alternative to DNA, made with twice as many “ingredients.”

An illustration of the new synthetic DNA structure, showing regular nucleotides (green, blue, red, yellow) along ...

Space Audio available

NASA's newest mission to look for life's ingredients and probe the universe's deep past

Michael Irving February 13, 2019

NASA has selected the newest space mission for its Explorer program: the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx). The spacecraft will search for the ingredients of life in the Milky Way, and peer as far as 10 billion years back in time.

An artist's impression of SPHEREx, the mission NASA has just selected for its Explorers program

Biology Audio available

Two billion-year old fossils reveal earliest evidence of living locomotion

Michael Irving February 11, 2019

New fossils found in the African country of Gabon have turned up the earliest evidence of life showing some initiative and moving around of its own accord. It now seems that life was mobile some 1.5 billion years earlier than previously thought.

The earliest known evidence of locomotion in complex lifeforms has been found in 2.1 billion-year old ...

Science Audio available

Lightning's electromagnetic fields may have a weird "healing" effect on living cells

Michael Irving February 10, 2019

A new study from Tel Aviv University suggests that the electromagnetic fields given off by lightning activity around the world could protect living cells from certain kinds of damage, which may have had implications for the evolution of life on Earth.

A new study suggests low-level electromagnetic fields from lightning strikes may protect living cells

Science Audio available

Fossil fats reveal how complex life kicked off after Snowball Earth phase

Michael Irving January 31, 2019

About 700 million years ago, basically the entire planet iced over in a period often called “Snowball Earth.” Now researchers have found fossil fats that help fill in the story of how life bounced back after this global cataclysm, and how we humans might owe our very existence to them.

Fossil fats have shown how complex life arose after Earth's "snowball" phase

Space Audio available

NASA experiment shows DNA sugars could be floating around in space

Michael Irving December 18, 2018

Evidence is building that life's chemical building blocks may start stacking up in space. Now, NASA astrophysicists have managed to create DNA sugars in a vacuum chamber that simulates interstellar space, and in follow-up studies found other sugar derivatives in meteorite samples.

DNA sugars may form in the interstellar medium, which is seeded with vital molecules from nebulae

Environment Audio available

10-year study documents massive, mysterious ecosystem deep beneath our feet

Michael Irving December 10, 2018

A study has taken a census of life in the “deep biosphere” beneath the Earth's surface. Among the finds are bizarre creatures that can survive at record depths, pressures and temperatures, and even “zombie” bacteria that may live (in a loose sense of the word) for millions of years at a time.

Researchers have cataloged the extensive biosphere of life deep beneath the surface of the Earth

Space Audio available

Climate simulations forecast the weather on all seven TRAPPIST exoplanets

Michael Irving November 22, 2018

Among the almost-4,000 exoplanets found so far, none really capture the imagination like TRAPPIST-1. Now a team of astronomers led by the University of Washington has simulated the climates that could be found on each TRAPPIST world.

An artistic render of a temperate TRAPPIST-1 f, which could also be frozen or stifling under ...

Space Audio available

New Arecibo Message updates original attempt to contact ET

Michael Irving November 18, 2018

In 1974, astronomers used the Arecibo Observatory to beam a message from humanity to the stars, in one of the most well-known attempts to contact possible alien life. For the 44th anniversary of the Arecibo Message, scientists are reaching out to the public for help in designing an updated version.

The Arecibo Observatory, which was used to send the original Arecibo Message in 1974