But finding geological evidence of the extent of Earth's life (that is, locating rocks that formed with Earth, not on it) is ...

Hadean meteorites and lunar rocks up to 4.5 billion years old have been found before, but nothing directly from Earth even came close.

It’s the only rock determined to be from the first of four geological eons in our planet’s history: the Hadean, which began 4.6 billion years ago when the world was hot, turbulent and hell-like.

These rocks are unambiguously dated at 4.03 billion years old, marking the boundary between the Hadean Eon and the next chapter in Earth’s history: the Archean.

Earth was a ball of molten lava when it first formed about 4.5 billion years ago. Scientists originally believed that Earth’s first eon–the Hadean–ended when the first rocks formed.

It’s the only rock determined to be from the first of four geological eons in our planet’s history: the Hadean, which began 4.6 billion years ago when the world was hot, turbulent and hell-like.

These rocks are unambiguously dated at 4.03 billion years old, marking the boundary between the Hadean Eon and the next chapter in Earth’s history: the Archean.

That puts it in the Hadean eon – Earth’s chaotic infancy, when the planet’s surface simmered with volcanic fury and asteroid impacts were frequent enough to ruin any early landscaping efforts.

UK start-up Complement Therapeutics has raised an impressive €72 million ($79 million) in first-round financing that will be used to take a gene therapy for sight-robbing diseas ...