The building blocks of life as we know it require chemical reactions involving phosphorus. But phosphorus is scarce on Earth. Where did enough of it come from to fuel life's start? Carbonate-rich lakes, like Mono Lake in California, might hold a clue.

The Earth might be crawling with undiscovered alien creatures whose biochemistry is very different from life as we know it. An astrobiologist explains.

According to independent analyses by both NASA and NOAA, Earth's global surface temperatures in 2019 ranked 2nd-warmest since 1880.

According to the UK's Met Office, each decade from the 1980s has been successively warmer than all the decades that came before. 2019 concludes the warmest ‘cardinal’ decade (those spanning years ending 0-9) in records that stretch back to the mid-19th century.

NOAA reports that 2019 was the 5th consecutive year in which the United States experienced 10 or more $1 billion weather and climate disasters, including fires, hurricanes and flooding.

Growing up Tyrannosaurus rex: A new study from Oklahoma State University provides details about what life was like for the famous dinosaurs during their juvenile teenage years.

El Popo erupts! Well, it erupts often, but Thursday morning's eruption - which happened at sunrise - was a beauty. El Popo is the nickname for Mexico's most active volcano, Popocatépetl, near Mexico City. The eruption Thursday caused officials to issue a yellow alert.

USGS reports that the strong earthquake in Puerto Rico this morning was "widely felt." Strong to very strong shaking occurred across parts of southern Puerto Rico closest to the event, and moderate shaking occurred across the rest of the island.

The outlook for the bushfire situation in Australia continues to be grim. This post is an update via NASA, containing NOAA-NASA satellite images of actively burning fires and the resultant billowing smoke.

Last month was the 2nd warmest November in the 140-year global climate record, and polar sea ice coverage shrank to near-record lows, according to a NOAA report. .