The amino acid glycine is one of twenty chemical building blocks of the proteins that provide most of the structures and functions in living cells. Scientists recently detected “microscopic traces of glycine” in materials retrieved from the tail of a comet.

Evolutionary history holds that the first humans emerged about 200,000 years ago. It was thought that these early people were in some ways sub-human, as the gradual development of higher-level thinking slowly separated them from their ape-like ancestors. But the archaeological find of an ancient crafted hand tool makes that assumption quite questionable.

Most people know that fruits, vegetables, and grains are good for the human body. Decades of medical research have shown that eating a more vegetable-rich diet with less red meat, fried foods, and processed sugar can help reduce some cancer risks and the threat of cardiovascular disease.

The ongoing quest to find life in space has failed to yield any supportive evidence that life exists outside the earth. To prop up the idea of distant spontaneous life formation, some scientists are willing to settle for science fiction. One Serbian astrobiologist has taken cues from evolutionary paleontology—and maybe even from comic books.

Scientists have speculated for years about how planets, stars, and other astronomical systems formed.