Life made the modern Earth as much as the Earth made life, a new book by a philosopher of consciousness argues. That dynamic leaves humans with a unique set of moral questions, Peter Godfrey-Smith of ...

All organisms are made of living cells. While it is difficult to pinpoint exactly when the first cells came to exist, geologists' best estimates suggest at least as early as 3.8 billion years ago. But ...

In the whole history of Earth's climate, few events are as extreme as those that geologists call "Snowball Earth." "These are times when geologic evidence indicates Earth froze over, essentially from ...

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: In geological layers around the world (particularly in the southwestern U.S.) roughly one billion years of rock are missing—a mystery known as the ...

Learn about how Earth’s history is written in its rocks with this excerpt from “How to Read a Rock” Jan Zalasiewicz The pine tree, in this age-old relationship, is supported by the rock, and gains ...

Over four millennia ago, in the final days of the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia, a drought swept over the region, afflicting lands as far away as Greece and what’s now Pakistan. Probably driven by ...

Earth was mostly devoid of oxygen for much of its 4.5 billion year lifetime. That is, until certain processes started to ...

Exploring LIDAR: Tech using lasers to reveal the deep history beneath our world’s surface. The Channeled Scablands of the Pacific Northwest hide an astonishing secret. Evidence of a massive flood that ...

Early Eocene forest, Wyoming, U.S. Illustration by Julius Csotonyi, Smithsonian Institution Pollinators play a vital role in fertilising flowers, which grow into seeds and fruits and underpin our ...