Scientists are listening in on sperm whale conversations and studying Earth's strangest microbes to prepare humanity for first contact with extraterrestrial life.

When astrobiologists are asked what aliens might look like, many now point not to distant galaxies but to some of the strangest corners of Earth, where researchers on several continents are using ...

For generations, science fiction has imagined what life might look like on other worlds. These aliens are fictional, sure, but some of them are informed by real evolutionary processes on Earth. That's ...