Life on Earth rests on a knife-edge of chemistry that could easily have tipped the other way. As geochemists reconstruct the planet’s birth, they are finding that a narrow band of oxygen conditions ...

The new plot twist is that in order to keep enough nitrogen and phosphorus near its surface, a planet has to start out with ...

Scientists have discovered a surprising source of oxygen on the deep ocean floor, challenging the long-held belief that sunlight is essential for its production. Research in the Pacific's ...

In the reaction, the bonds in the methane and oxygen molecule come apart, the atoms rearrange and then re-bond to form water and carbon dioxide. The little number written at the lower right after an ...