Everyone from David Bowie to astrobiologists to tinfoil hat believers has pondered the question: is there life on Mars? While we’ve found direct evidence of liquid water on the Red Planet, we have yet to find any microbes there. But not all hope is lost—new discoveries from NASA’s Curiosity rover have brought forth…
They haven’t found alien life out there yet, but following the first successful in-space DNA sequencing, astronauts have a better way to look for it.
Winter Storm Jonas pretty much has the East Coast stuck inside this weekend, which means that you’re probably sitting in front of your television scrolling through Netflix. Allow us to help.
NASA just confirmed something incredible: There’s water flowing on Mars today. But what does that mean for life on the red planet today—both the life that may already be present, as well as the life we could bring by building a colony there?
When Curiosity goes looking for organic molecules in Mars's solid surface, it vaporizes a rock sample and sniffs the gas that comes out. The plan could be going awry thanks to a pesky little mineral called jarosite.
It may not look like much — just an old rock with dust on it. But after careful examination of this and other images taken of the Martian surface, a geobiologist is now claiming that these distinctive surface features could have only come from one source: microbes.
Data collected by the Curiosity Rover suggests Mars once featured a moderate climate capable of fostering lakes of liquid water and even a vast sea, and that this climate could have extended to many parts of the Red Planet.
We're just a few days away from the start of the fall TV season in earnest. Tons of new TV shows will be displaying their bright plumage for you. But these days, a TV show has to move fast to hook people. Here are 10 TV shows that won us over in just five minutes — and what they did to grab us.
Just like with movies, you sometimes see a few television shows about the same idea come down the pike. Recently, we had two "supernatural child" shows (Touch and Believe), and a handful of supernatural medical shows. But here are 10 TV show ideas that keep coming back again and again.
Extremophiles teach us that life is found in unlikely places, which is why scientists are trying to expand our definition of what a habitable environment is. This ancient Martian volcano could be a prime example.
Curiosity is going to peer beneath the red surface of Mars by drilling into it — and scientists are hoping to find signs of ancient life.
What better place to recreate the red planet, a rocky, desolate, alien world, than the beautiful, sunny Utah desert! Researchers from the Mars Society have been living in tiny two-story huts, eating rations and only showering every three days, all in the name of science. The Mars Desert Research Station is…
The massive asteroid that slammed into Earth some 66 million years ago is often—and understandably—considered a vicious killer. But new research into the cosmic effects of the impact suggest quite the opposite. That deadly asteroid might have actually blasted life throughout the solar system.
Mars is a big boy. At 4.5 billion years old, the Red Planet can surely take care of itself by now—but you wouldn't know it based on the great lengths NASA and friends go to protect it from contamination by Earthly debris. Some astrobiologists think these measures are unnecessary.
The possibility that Mars was once home to all kinds of life is looking better and better with each new Curiosity discovery. According to newly published research, the rover has stumbled across a site in the Gale Crater that scientists believe might have once been a lake full of life.
Last night, Breaking Bad broke us once and for all, with a fitting ending that gave us tons of closure. But many of our favorite TV shows have straight-up kicked us in the teeth on their way out. Here are the most brutal series finales of science fiction and fantasy TV shows.
One major reason we love science fiction is for its ability to surprise us — and a great twist ending makes the whole preceding story feel better. But when a final twist feels random or silly, then there's nothing worse. What's your least favorite twist ending from science fiction or fantasy?
The goal of NASA's Curiosity rover is to determine if Mars was ever capable of supporting life. But the Agency's next rover, set to launch in 2020, could take things one giant step further. Given recent findings, says Jack Mustard, chairman of the Agency's Science Definition Team, "past Martian life seems possible,…
As NASA's Curiosity rover scours the Martian surface in search of signs that Mars was once capable of fostering complex life, a team of researchers from the University of Poitiers, France, and Caltech have issued a paper that casts serious doubt on the notion that the planet was once habitable.
This actually sounds amazingly promising — Matthew Graham, best known for creating the original British Life on Mars, has a deal with Fox to create a new show called Para Time. According to Heat Vision, the show "revolves around a group that polices parallel worlds." So, sliders meets police procedural? We're in. […
