Thousands of metres deep in the Caribbean Sea, there’s a bizarre habitat where there’s no sunlight, mineral-rich waters reach ...

Explore the history of life on Earth, from 3.5-billion-year-old fossils to the vast diversity of species on our planet today.

Far beneath the ocean’s surface, hydrothermal vents gush superheated, mineral-rich fluids that nourish entire ecosystems without sunlight. Bacteria here convert chemicals into energy, supporting ...

This is the Volume 2 of a series of Research Topics and you can explore Volume 1 here Microorganisms are ubiquitous and can be found in various ...

Thousands of meters below the frigid surface of the Southern Ocean, a robotic submarine named Isis crawled along a volcanic ...

This article explores the "Lost City," a unique hydrothermal vent field located on the Atlantis Massif in the Atlantic Ocean.

The surface waters of the Antarctic are a cold, still world of ice, hovering around minus one degree Celsius. Thousands of ...

Our planet is unique for its ability to sustain abundant life. From studies of the rock record, scientists believe life had already emerged on Earth at least 3.5 billion years ago and probably much ...

Extreme thermal environments, both natural (e.g., hot springs, fumaroles, geysers, mud pots, deep-sea hydrothermal vents) and man-made (e.g., compost heaps, sawdust ...

Before sunlight ever reached the planet, another force may have sparked life—electricity. Deep beneath the ocean floor, ancient hydrothermal vents might have generated natural electric fields strong ...