Clues to the Last Common Ancestor [2-25-2002]
Molecular detectives have traced human ancestry back to the so-called Mitochondrial Eve, the last female common ancestor. More recent research has posited a Y-chromosome Adam, the last male common ancestor.  

Genetic Alchemy: Turning Lobsters into Fruit Flies [2-22-2002]
Biologists at the University of California, San Diego, now have genetic evidence that explains how such drastic alterations to body plans were able to occur during the early evolution of animals.  

Digital Zookeepers Take a Census [2-1-2002]
Cataloguing the taxonomy of an entire planet's history, a 'digital zoo' holds great promise for resolving century-old debates about how the Earth got to be such a rich spawning ground for life's diversity.  

One-Handed Life [12-26-2001]
Scientists with the NASA Astrobiology Institute have created self-replicating molecules that produce only "left-handed" molecules or only "right-handed" molecules.The findings may help explain why life is based on left-handed amino acids.  

Earth's Oldest Mineral Grains Suggest an Early Start for Life [12-24-2001]
The hills of Western Australia are home to zircons nearly four-and-a-half billion years old. The tiny crystals may change our understanding of the newly-formed Earth.  

Test-tube RNA [12-14-2001]
Research done by scientists at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research offers insights into evolutionary origins of life.  

The Three Domains of Life [10-22-2001]
When scientists first started to classify life, everything was designated as either an animal or a plant. But as new forms of life were discovered and our knowledge of life on Earth grew, the original classification was not sufficient enough to organize the diversity and complexity of life.  

Genomics Meets Geology [9-10-2001]
Chemist Steven A. Benner and his colleagues are combining chemistry, geological history and paleontology in an approach aimed at better understanding how life on Earth works now and how it evolved.