What we can know about biology before the last universal common ancestor is limited—and we should be circumspect in filling in the gaps.

The ancient organisms appear to be more closely related to eukaryotes than previously appreciated.

We should take comfort in the fact that life on Earth had such unassuming, shared beginnings.

Meet some of the people featured in the June 2018 issue of The Scientist.

The discovery of copious new archaeal species is shedding light on the tree of life and revealing some unique cellular biology.

Identification of new archaea species elucidates the domain’s unique  biology and sheds light on its relationship to eukaryotes.

The paper describing the gene-editing method is retracted.

Scientists expand the microbial tree of life by publishing more than 1,000 novel reference genomes.  

Two previously overlooked archaeal strains fill an evolutionary gap for microbes.

A newly discovered superphylum of archaea may be related to a microbe that engulfed a bacterium to give rise to complex eukaryotic life.