Developing computational tools to analyze the reams of microbial sequencing data his lab generates, the UC San Diego microbiologist is a pioneer of microbiome research.

If the structures identified in a 2.1-billion-year-old rock are really signs of burrowing organisms, it would push back the earliest known mobile organisms by 1.5 billion years.

From journeys into mines to explorations of volcanoes on the ocean floor, deep voyages reveal the richness of the planet’s deep biosphere.

Microbes were living on land as early as 3.22 billion years ago, fossilized rocks show, 500 million years earlier than previously documented.

A new estimate bumps up the area previously estimated to be covered by running water by more than 40 percent.

A new study counters the popular theory that after Mount Toba blew its top 74,000 years ago, humans almost went extinct.

A new analysis of microbial data estimates that the world is home to 1 trillion species—of which only 0.001 percent have been discovered.

A new estimate of the origin of life on Earth pushes back the date by 300 million years.

In the book's prologue, author David Waltham compares a fictitious planet to Earth, highlighting the biologically supportive luck that our planet has enjoyed.