Paul M. Sutter
The Seeming Impossibility of Life
The number of near misses, false starts, and legitimate disasters that have befallen our species since the day we took…
Is the Habitable Zone Really Habitable?
The water that life knows and needs, the water that makes a world habitable, the water that acts as the…
The Improbable Origins of Life on Earth
We do not yet know how, where, or why life first appeared on our planet. Part of the difficulty is…
The Galactic Habitable Zone
Our planet sits in the Habitable Zone of our Sun, the special place where water can be liquid on the…
Early Life Was Radically Different Than Today
All modern life shares a robust, hardy, efficient system of intertwined chemicals that propagate themselves. This system must have emerged…
Why Venus Died
Venus is only slightly smaller than the Earth, and so has enjoyed billions of years of a warm heart. But…
Why Mars Died
We know of Mars as the Red Planet, for its surface and atmosphere is caked in endless swirling dust of…
Thirsty? Water is More Common than you Think
Water is the most common chemical molecule found throughout the entire universe. What water has going for it is that…
Why Quantum Mechanics Defies Physics
The full, weird story of the quantum world is much too large for a single article, but the period from…
We Owe Our Lives to the Moon
Life appeared on Earth through a series of lucky coincidences, and that luck started with our Moon. None of the…