Learn how one-celled organisms, or single-celled organisms, helped build complex life.

Ten years ago, nobody knew that Asgard archaea even existed. In 2015, however, researchers examining deep-sea sediments discovered gene fragments that indicated a new and previously undiscovered form ...

For some three billion years, unicellular organisms ruled Earth. Then, around one billion years ago, a new chapter of life began. Early attempts at team living began to stick, paving the way for the ...

Few questions have captivated humankind more than the origin of life on Earth. How did the first living cells come to exist? How did these early protocells develop the structural membranes necessary ...

The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their ...

Compressing a type of single-celled microorganism makes it develop into a multicellular tissue-like structure with different cell types. This suggests that pressure can help drive key evolutionary ...

Under microscopes, scientists found that giant single-cell organisms were able to vacuum up more food when they are stuck together. By Jack Tamisiea For a creature made up of only a single cell, the ...

At the microscopic edge of biology, researchers have uncovered an organism so stripped down that it forces a rethink of what it means to be alive. The discovery hints at a form of existence that is ...