Interestingly, the geological history shows that clay first emerged on Earth, in the form of silicates leach from rocks, around the same time biomolecules began to form into protocells, and ...

Clay might have been the catalyst for life to originate on Earth, a new study has found, echoing what religions around the world have been suggesting for thousands of years.

Hansma didn’t set out to figure out how life evolved on Earth when she first came upon her idea. Rather, as a research biophysicist and a program director at the National Science Foundation back ...

Clay -- a seemingly infertile blend of minerals -- might have been the birthplace of life on Earth. Or at least of the complex biochemicals that make life possible, biological engineers report.

NASA revealed Wednesday that newly returned samples from a 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid contain traces of carbon and water — molecules that are thought to make up the building blocks of life.