Discover the origin and purpose of the structures of living things, from why baboons have swollen bottoms to the ...

Earth’s history has been shaped by five mass extinctions—catastrophic periods when life changed so dramatically that entire ...

A siphonophore—a colonial marine invertebrate related to the venomous stinging Portuguese Man-o-war—is scanned using Deep ...

What if an alien species had a complete evolutionary history stretching billions of years? This deep dive explores the Yaetuans, from microscopic lifeforms to a civilization capable of reaching the ...

The nature of space, time and the evolution of life on Earth mean it’s unlikely extraterrestrial life has visited our home ...

12 years is a long wait to play the sequel to one of your favourite games of all time. During that decade-plus stretch, I’ve re-played the original Alien: Isolation multiple times, analysed its ...

Polygon Summer Game Fest 2026 Live game reveals, world premiere trailers, and what’s next from 40+ developers, publishers, and hardware makers. Aliens: Fireteam Elite 2 is a co-op shooter where you ...

Thus far, our search for extraterrestrial life points toward Clarke’s former point, suggesting that our little blue dot is ...

The moment of first contact with extraterrestrials is a staple of science fiction. It usually involves a frantic scientist having a Eureka moment, realising in a single dramatic instant that Earth is ...

Are humans alone in the universe? The answer is more complicated than science fiction might suggest. Scientists have discovered billions upon billions of potentially habitable planets. But if life is ...