Introduction to Geomicrobiology is a timely and comprehensive overview of how microbial
life has affected Earth's environment through time. It shows how the ubiquity of …

While grounded in the hard sciences of physics, chemistry, geology, and astronomy, as well
as well-accepted principles in the life sciences, astrobiology remains the most speculative of …

The fossil record documents two mutually exclusive macroevolutionary modes separated by
the transitional Ediacaran Period. Despite the early appearance of crown eukaryotes and an …

If life emerges readily under Earth-like conditions, the possibility arises of multiple terrestrial
genesis events. We seek to quantify the probability of this scenario using estimates of the …

Structurally complex life and intelligence evolved late on Earth; models for the evolution of
global temperature suggest that, due to the increasing solar luminosity, the future life span of …

It is unknown how abundant extraterrestrial life is, or whether such life might be complex or
intelligent. On Earth, the emergence of complex intelligent life required a preceding series of …

The origins of life stands among the great open scientific questions of our time. While a
number of proposals exist for possible starting points in the pathway from non-living to living …

The potential habitability of newly discovered exoplanets is initially assessed by determining
whether their orbits fall within the circumstellar habitable zone of their star. However, the …

We introduce a mathematical framework for statistical exoplanet population and astrobiology
studies that may help direct future observational efforts and experiments. The approach is …

Life arose on Earth sometime in the first few hundred million years after the young planet
had cooled to the point that it could support water-based organisms on its surface. The early …