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Sciworthy

The Encyclopedia of Science's Frontier

Category: What happened in Earth’s past?

What was the Earth like a long time ago? What have archaeologists found? What was it like before life started? How did life come to be?
silhouette of mountain under cloudy sky during daytime
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Did lightning provide food for life’s beginning?

Posted on April 10, 2023April 17, 2023 by Aubrey Zerkle

Lightning bolts can be deadly or destructive, but some researchers propose they might also have supplied essential elements for the first…

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    How smart were the dinosaurs?

    Posted on March 2, 2023March 2, 2023 by Aubrey Zerkle

    A researcher from Vanderbilt University inferred dinosaur intelligence from fossilized skulls. She used the skulls to estimate the number of…

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      Microbes entombed in ancient salts could help search for life on Mars

      Posted on August 8, 2022October 24, 2022 by Aubrey Zerkle

      Geologists discovered microbes trapped in 830-million-year-old salt minerals similar to those found on Mars.

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        Why did a bunch of asteroids hit the Earth billions of years ago?

        Posted on July 6, 2022April 17, 2023 by Aubrey Zerkle

        The first cells of life on Earth had a lot to contend with. Conditions were harsh and unpredictable. The air was thick with volcanic gases.…

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          Where did all these plants come from?

          Posted on May 12, 2022October 24, 2022 by Sciworthy

          Without plants on earth, we would not be here. But, where did plants come from? Did they suddenly just sprout out of the ground? Scientists…

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            Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are way older than penicillin

            Posted on February 10, 2022October 24, 2022 by Sciworthy

            Remember the classic chases where Wile E. Coyote tries to catch Roadrunner but is often outsmarted? It turns out that bacteria have to…

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              Ancient bacteria leave behind fossils, too!

              Posted on February 1, 2022October 24, 2022 by Sciworthy

              Scientists used genetic technology to identify the different roles of bacteria present in ancient fossil formations called stromatolites.

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                A detailed look at a rare meteorite

                Posted on January 10, 2022October 24, 2022 by Sciworthy

                A carbonaceous meteorite that fell in Costa Rica holds organic compounds that are preserved from the earliest stages of our solar system,…

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                  Building the molecules of life in the lab

                  Posted on January 3, 2022October 24, 2022 by Gina Misra

                  The hyperbranched polymer scaffold could have been the early primitive base for the emergence of life. @t_z_jia @CerberaOdollam…

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                    Searching for the first light of fireflies

                    Posted on October 18, 2021October 24, 2022 by Sciworthy

                    Fireflies are bioluminescent, which means they glow. But were they always that way? Why do they glow? Scientists used genetics tools to find…

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                      What’s new in Astrobiology?

                      Artist's impression of the planetary system around the red dwarf Gliese 581. Credit: ESO

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