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We don’t wanna freak you out, but West Virginian scientists may have found a life form more than 800 million years old. In a new paper published in the journal Geology, West Virginia University geologists say that some of the microorganisms found inside the Browne Formation, an 830 million-year-old rock found in the Australian desert, may still be alive — and if they are, it could help us find life on Mars, to boot. Taking a piece of the Browne Formation, which includes halite salt crystals, the WVU researchers found organic liquids and solids using non-invasive optical techniques. Within those...

Water found in meteorite Tiny bubbles are caught in the water Scientists have made the first discovery of liquid water in a meteorite. The space rock was recovered by a group of boys in a small Texas town who saw it fall out of the sky in 1998. Specimens taken to Nasa's Johnson Space Center in Houston were subjected to tests by Michael Zolensky and his colleagues. When they cracked open the rock they found tiny, purple spots of halite - crystals of sodium chloride, or table salt - along with minute amounts of briny water. Others who have looked...