New research reveals that hydrothermal vents provided early Earth with abundant nitrogen, challenging previous theories.

Living organisms need nitrogen as a central building block for protein formation, for example. However, although our ...

inside Earth escape through cracks in the surface and collect in the early atmosphere. The likely presence of methane and ammonia among the gases makes for conditions that would be highly toxic to ...

With high carbon dioxide, low oxygen and no photosynthesis, here’s how an entire ecosystem persists in Movile Cave, one of the most extreme environments on Earth.