Worms are critical to soil health, and without soil Planet Earth would be little more than a lifeless rock. So why is it that most of us take the earth beneath our feet for granted? We might ...

First and foremost, we have to figure out how to make Mars’s lifeless soil more pliable for plants. Mars’s lack of an atmosphere means that the soil on Mars isn’t nearly as rich in the ...

In February 2017, researchers dumped practically lifeless soil from Peru's Pampas de la Joya desert inside, planted a tuber in it, sealed up the box, and began filming to see what happened.