Several people in masks and wearing gloves look at samples of rocks on a table
Researchers examining cores drilled from deep beneath the ocean.
  • Scientists drilled into the seafloor to look billions of years into the planet's past.
  • Some scientists think hydrothermal vents may have given rise to life on Earth.
  • And the signals to life's origins could be locked inside molecules deep underground.

A group of scientists are looking for clues about the origin of life in a massive chunk of rocks they pulled up from deep below the seafloor.