Some exoplanets, especially those orbiting cooler red dwarfs, might host purple plant life rather than the green-hue vegetation found on Earth. A study from Cornell University discovered that a ...

The film that follows — flatly repetitive with far too many wildly misguided and self-serious moments — is turgid from start ...

The fictional biologist in ‘Project Hail Mary’ claims that potential alien organisms might not be made of carbon or require water, unlike life on Earth.

Like the lead character of “Project Hail Mary,” some scientists are proposing ways that life might exist beyond a star’s ...

Many people expect the world to end soon. A new study reveals that these apocalyptic narratives consistently predict how ...

But the creepiest layer of Marathon ’s mythology involves entities called the W’rkncacnter — primordial forces of chaos so dangerous they were imprisoned inside stars, black holes, and only ...

No wonder that, as AI grows rapidly more powerful, experts in the field are gloomily predicting a catastrophe. Some warn of a ...

The following is an extract from our Lost in Space-Time newsletter. Each month, we dive into fascinating ideas from around the universe. You can sign up for Lost in Space-Time here. Modern physics ...

This video breaks down the difference between convergent and divergent evolution and explains how shared traits can arise in very different ways. Convergent evolution shows how unrelated species can ...

Katie has a PhD in maths, specializing in the intersection of dynamical systems and number theory. She reports on topics from maths and history to society and animals. Katie has a PhD in maths, ...

For nearly five decades, Steven Spielberg has helped define what alien stories mean to movie audiences. Sometimes they arrive as cosmic miracles. Sometimes as existential threats. Sometimes as ...

When we imagine alien life, we picture monsters, insects, or tentacles—but what if the most realistic aliens are human-like? Evolution tends to solve the same problems with similar designs, and ...