- 4 hours ago
- #brightside
- #brightsideglobal
The universe is an incredibly huge place, and it's hard to figure out when and where life first appeared. Scientists think that life on Earth started about 3.5 to 4 billion years ago, but that's not very long ago compared to the universe's age of 13.8 billion years. There's a chance that life could have emerged somewhere else in the universe even sooner, since there are so many planets and possible places where life could exist. Until we learn more about space and find new evidence, the questions of how and where life began outside of Earth are still very intriguing and make us curious.
#brightside #brightsideglobal
TIMESTAMPS:
0:01 First life
09:18 First complex life
18:07 Real-life Jurassic park
This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
#brightside #brightsideglobal
TIMESTAMPS:
0:01 First life
09:18 First complex life
18:07 Real-life Jurassic park
This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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FunTranscript
00:00In the icy wilderness of Antarctica, there was a peculiar rock.
00:04Amidst the vast, smooth, and snowy landscape, it stood alone like a dark smudge.
00:10This rock had been there for ages, untouched except for occasional snowfall.
00:16Roberta Skor, a lab manager at NASA's Johnson Space Center,
00:20had spent countless hours in Antarctica searching for rocks just like this one.
00:24Antarctica was an unexpected treasure trove for these discoveries.
00:28These rocks were easy to spot against the blindingly white ice.
00:33Why was it so important?
00:35Because it wasn't just any rock.
00:37It was a meteorite that had fallen from space thousands of years ago.
00:42Roberta's rock, known as ALH 84001, was initially unimpressive.
00:49However, it turned out to be extraordinary.
00:52It was a piece of Mars.
00:57The rock's chemical composition perfectly matched the surface of the red planet.
01:02Turns out, it had been blasted off Mars during a colossal collision millions of years ago.
01:08It was wandering through space before landing on Earth.
01:11There, it had remained undisturbed for a very long time.
01:16Scientists at Johnson Space Center carefully examined this Martian visitor.
01:20Years later, physicists made a remarkable announcement.
01:24This meteorite contained tiny structures that looked just like living organisms found on Earth.
01:30NASA immediately shared this discovery with the world.
01:33We found fossilized evidence of life on Mars.
01:39However, as other scientists got their hands on the rock and conducted further studies, they began to doubt it.
01:46Yes, it was a fascinating piece of rock.
01:49But Martian chemistry might create similar structures without life being involved.
01:54So, unfortunately, it wasn't conclusive evidence.
01:57But all this debate raised a very important question.
02:01Would we recognize extraterrestrial life if we saw it?
02:05There are more than 200 different definitions of life in scientific literature.
02:10So, what should we be looking for?
02:12To figure out what makes something alive, scientists have come up with three important things that living things must have.
02:19First, living things need to store information about themselves.
02:23This information tells them how to work and what they're like.
02:27It's a bit like having a set of instructions for how they function.
02:30Second, they need to be able to interact with their environment and create reactions.
02:36These reactions help them get energy, move around, and respond to changes or dangers.
02:42Lastly, they must be able to make copies of themselves, reproducing, and making other things that are just like them.
02:49This ability is a big part of what makes something alive.
02:55The famous physicist Erwin Schrödinger was one of the first people to figure this out.
03:00He said that storing, using, and passing on information is super important for life.
03:06It's like a cycle.
03:07Information helps create reactions, and some of those reactions let living things make copies of themselves.
03:14On Earth, we see this in action.
03:16We humans, for example, have DNA to store our information.
03:20It helps us with our evolution.
03:23Thanks to all this, we can adapt to our surroundings over time.
03:27Nature sees that some traits are helpful for survival, so they stick around, while others get left behind.
03:34In other words, a way to define life is by saying that it's subject to this process called Darwinian evolution.
03:41But how did it happen that things capable of evolution appeared?
03:45And when did the very first life emerge in our universe?
03:48To find out the answer, let's go to the very beginning of everything.
03:55The beginning was the Big Bang.
03:58Right after it, there were no stars or galaxies.
04:01The universe started as a mostly even and empty place, with just a tiny bit denser than the rest.
04:07After the first second or so, first protons, neutrons, and electrons, among other particles, appeared.
04:13And just about a couple of minutes later, these protons and neutrons came together to make stable atomic cores.
04:21Then, everything was a super-hot soup of particles for about 380,000 years.
04:27It was way too hot to form anything dense.
04:30The universe needed some time to chill.
04:33After it calmed down a bit, it let electrons join these cores, forming neutral atoms for the first time.
04:40Ah, finally, some comfy temperatures.
04:43If we were there, we wouldn't have needed the sun to keep us warm.
04:47That cosmic background radiation would have been enough.
04:52Could life appear at this point?
04:55Probably not.
04:56In those early moments, after the Big Bang, the universe had only hydrogen, helium, a tiny bit of lithium, and
05:03almost none of the other elements life needs.
05:06Life, as we know, requires things like water and organic compounds.
05:10So it wasn't about the temperatures.
05:12It was about the ingredients.
05:15Now, everything had to form over time from these atoms.
05:18To create something like a planet, which is much denser than the universe on average, it needed a lot of
05:25time and gravitational squeezing.
05:27Gravity is the real hero of this story.
05:30It changed the universe completely.
05:33Even though it started slow, it kept going and got stronger.
05:37Regions that were a bit denser could pull in more matter.
05:40And the denser they got, the more they attracted.
05:43The very first star should have formed around 50 to 100 million years after the Big Bang.
05:50These stars could become incredibly massive, hundreds or even a thousand times bigger than our sun.
05:56And when these stars formed, it didn't take long, maybe 1 or 2 million years, before they disappeared.
06:02Just for comparison, our own sun is 4.6 billion years old and still going strong.
06:11When huge stars reach the end of their lives, something incredible happens.
06:16They transform helium into carbon, then carbon into oxygen, and oxygen into a bunch of other stuff all the way
06:23up the periodic table.
06:25Then the star's core collapses, causing a massive supernova.
06:29This huge BAM releases all these heavy elements into the universe.
06:34Hooray!
06:35Now the space is filled with something new.
06:38The universe acquires many cool things, including the ingredients needed for rocky planets and organic molecules.
06:45Each generation of stars gets even richer than the previous one.
06:49Yes to more elements.
06:51It means more rocky planets, more essential ingredients for life, and more chances for complex organic molecules to form.
06:59And now, when the universe was around 300 to 500 million years old, rocky planets were already popping up everywhere.
07:10Great.
07:11Can we have some life now?
07:12Mmm.
07:13That depends on what we see as life.
07:16The recipe for life as we know it needs a special ingredient, carbon.
07:21Carbon is special because it can bond with other atoms in so many ways.
07:25It can connect with different shapes to build all sorts of amazing complex structures.
07:30It's carbon that helps us form things like DNA and proteins, which are the building blocks of living things.
07:37Now, while the universe made rocky planets relatively quickly, it took a bit longer to get enough carbon floating around.
07:44It appeared about 1 to 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang.
07:49As soon as it appeared, the universe finally had enough conditions to create life as we know it.
07:56Which is why scientists are searching for planets around these oldest stars in the universe.
08:01These guys definitely had enough time for evolution.
08:04But just because you and me are made of carbon and other elements from exploded stars, doesn't mean that all
08:11life should be.
08:13Scientists are open to the idea of alternative biochemistries.
08:16There might be non-carbon-based life that we don't know about yet.
08:21For example, blobby beings made of silicon compounds.
08:25It's carbon's neighbor in the periodic table.
08:30So, when and where did life truly begin?
08:34Unfortunately, we don't know for sure yet.
08:36Most likely, the universe started preparing for life shortly after the first stars formed.
08:42And if all life is carbon-based only, then it should have appeared 1 to 1.5 billion years after
08:49the Big Bang.
08:50The universe is 13.8 billion years old.
08:54Looks like it had plenty of time to evolve lots of microorganisms.
08:58So, even if we made a mistake, and the mysterious meteorite was just a piece of rock, we shouldn't give
09:04up.
09:04The search for extraterrestrial life continues.
09:07And who knows?
09:09Maybe in the future, we'll finally know the answers to all these important questions.
09:14Until then, stay tuned.
09:17If you could track the line of evolution and go back an exceptionally long time ago, you'd see some weird
09:24creatures called Edeocorans.
09:27It seems like these little fellas made of tubes showed up 579 million years ago.
09:33They thrived at the bottom of the ocean for about 37 million years, chilling and minding their own business.
09:40It continued until they disappeared, or better yet, turned into faint marks we now only know from the sandstone fossil
09:48record.
09:49The world started to change for these ancient creatures somewhere around 541 million years ago, when a lot of new
09:56life forms came into being.
09:58Some new creatures began to evolve, and it's possible they might have replaced our friends.
10:04They might have changed the environment in ways that made it hard for these poor fellas to survive.
10:10Why does this even matter that much?
10:12It was the first time when a complex life form went extinct because of other living things.
10:19Usually, when you hear about lots of creatures vanishing from the face of the Earth, it's due to something like
10:24a giant volcanic eruption poisoning the oceans, or a big space rock slamming into our planet.
10:33For example, 440 million years ago, a big change in the planet's climate happened.
10:39The water in the oceans became colder, and it wiped away a lot of ocean life.
10:44The southern part of a big landmass called Gondwana ended up covered with ice quickly.
10:50This made a lot of Earth's water turn into ice, which, again, caused the sea levels to drop.
10:56Now, creatures from that time were struggling to find food.
11:00Plus, they didn't have homes where they could evolve, live, and reproduce.
11:04Then there was this interesting period called the Age of Fishes, when a wide variety of different sea creatures appeared
11:12on Earth.
11:12Even though some animals were starting to live on land, most of the action and fun was still in the
11:19oceans.
11:19At least until the moment when trees and plants ruined the party.
11:23Their roots started growing on dry land, and it transformed the world, turning rubble and rock into soil.
11:30This was fun for land animals, but it gave all those fellas in the ocean depths a lot to worry
11:36about.
11:36The soil, rich in nutrients, got into the oceans, which made a lot of algae grow in the water.
11:42These blooms eventually caused enormous dead zones, where algae took away oxygen from the water.
11:49So lots of marine animals that were simply fine, living their peaceful lives in the ocean, couldn't breathe there anymore.
11:56Plus, they didn't have enough food to survive.
11:59Or we can talk about the biggest extinction event called the Great Dying, 253 million years ago,
12:07when almost 90% of all species on Earth vanished, including many land creatures such as insects, reptiles, and amphibians.
12:16This happened because of insanely strong volcanic eruptions.
12:20When you see what happened in the past during these extinction events,
12:23you can understand better why the case of Edekarians is so intriguing.
12:29Researchers haven't found any evidence that low oxygen levels or some other troubles
12:35that might have happened in their environment could have caused them to disappear.
12:39Also, they've agreed that conditions weren't that bad since the creature's fossils remain intact.
12:46They look for answers in southern Namibia,
12:48studying rocks that contained fossils from the time when ancient creatures vanished.
12:53And new ones came to the scene.
12:55Researchers found many traces of these new ones left behind.
12:59Modern animals are like architects of their environment.
13:03They change things around them, dig into the ground, and eat one another.
13:08But if they caused ancient creatures to disappear,
13:11the remains of those species had to show some signs of struggling,
13:15something the fossils from Namibia indicated.
13:18Traces were similar to predatory sea anemones.
13:21See, anemones.
13:22Well, you know what I'm trying to say.
13:26How did tiny, simple cells even turn into such complex organisms anyway?
13:31Throughout time, they got bigger and ended up with nuclei and mitochondria,
13:36parts that helped cells work.
13:38But it's still not completely clear what really happened here.
13:42The most accepted theory is that mitochondria, which are like the powerhouse of the cell,
13:48came from a kind of bacteria that got inside another bigger cell.
13:52This bigger cell started to change over time, developing more parts, like the nucleus.
13:58This way, a cell became stronger and more complex.
14:02That sounds cool, but we can't be sure of this.
14:05One of the problems with this idea is that we don't see cells in between the simple and complex stages.
14:12There's also a new theory that says that the first step toward complex forms of life
14:17involved a bacterial cell that formed bumps on its surface.
14:21These bumps trapped similar bacteria, which then helped the cell get bigger.
14:26As it grew, the bumps turned into parts.
14:29And some of these parts later turned out to be useful, such as endoplasmic reticulum,
14:35the outer nucleus membrane.
14:37More and more parts started developing, which meant increasingly complex forms of life.
14:43And the most complex known creature that we ended up with is this tiny transparent water flea.
14:50It has 31,000 genes, which is 25% more than what humans have.
14:55This water flea is especially interesting because it can transform its shape when things get tough.
15:02It can grow spines, helmets, or even teeth, depending on its surroundings.
15:07And this might be because it has so many genes.
15:11Scientists copied its genes, and instead of staying the same,
15:15they quickly changed their roles to adjust to the environment.
15:19Researchers believed the copied genes would stay the same and only change later.
15:23So this was a bit of a surprise.
15:26And this interesting creature even has some genes like ours.
15:30This may help us understand our own kind better.
15:33For instance, how humans react to different threats in the environment,
15:37and how we can improve things that negatively affect our health.
15:41Or imagine if we could grow some of those cool additional organs, like this water flea.
15:46The first complex forms of life are older than we thought.
15:511.6 billion years ago, there was a happy community of small, bright red things that looked like plants.
15:58It was flitting around in a shallow pool of ancient waters,
16:02and eventually ended up trapped in rocks and preserved till the end of time.
16:07A few years ago, scientists from Sweden found these fossils in India,
16:11and concluded that they could be red algae.
16:14Using a special method, they carefully extracted them from the rock and discovered two types of red algae.
16:21One that looked like a segmented noodle, and the other with layers of cells.
16:26To understand them better, the researchers made 3D models of them and used radioactive dating to confirm their age.
16:33If that's true, they're almost half a billion years older than we previously thought.
16:38A very long time ago, our home planet was hot,
16:43because of all those things slamming into its surface, like asteroids and comets.
16:48This made it difficult for life to start there.
16:50But about 3.8 billion years ago, these hits slowed down, and life finally appeared on Earth.
16:58At first, those were simple life forms.
17:01But then, more of these space objects hit Earth.
17:03And it's possible, some of them brought water and other stuff important for life.
17:08Some life forms survived these hits, and finally had a chance to evolve.
17:13However, we still don't have unambiguous evidence of how it all started,
17:18so no one is sure if life on Earth appeared just once, or multiple times in unusual ways.
17:25Our planet had building blocks, which are elements important for the appearance of life.
17:30Even a long time ago, these blocks could have appeared naturally, or might have come from space rocks.
17:37As they join together, they form more complex things, like proteins, fats, and DNA.
17:43And maybe this process happened more than once.
17:47Someday, we'll find the answers, because it will help us understand not only our planet,
17:53but the odds of life emerging on other planets, too.
17:56So, you pay a few thousand bucks for a ticket, then fly on a private plane to a remote island
18:02with dinosaurs.
18:04A tour bus takes you through a graded field.
18:06You hope to see live diplodocus, velociraptors, tyrannosaurs, and other really big lizards.
18:14But it turns out that this park is full of a new species of genetically modified dinosaurs.
18:19Look, a massive tyrannosaurus with feathers and a beak is running around.
18:24This diplodocus has large ram horns, and the velociraptor has a short ostrich tail.
18:30All these monsters look like a big genetic mistake.
18:34They live in captivity and entertain rich people.
18:37And then you ask yourself, do we have the right to interfere with evolution and genetics
18:42to make dinosaurs for fun and profit?
18:45And is this the main question before making a real Jurassic Park?
18:49Why do we need to do this?
18:51But before answering it and seeing the consequences of such a park,
18:55let's find out how close modern technologies are to this.
18:59A company called Neuralink created a special chip and installed it into a monkey's brain
19:05to allow the animal to manipulate the computer with the power of its mind.
19:09One of this startup's co-founders said they had the technology to create Jurassic Park.
19:15Many people and fans of the famous movie were pleased with this news,
19:19but scientists say this idea isn't so cool.
19:22So if people are going to bring back dinosaurs, it can lead to unexpected results.
19:28This is not cloning or recreating lizards from a preserved DNA sample,
19:33but creating new species with the help of breeding and genetic code of dinosaurs' descendants.
19:38As a result, we can get lizards that have never walked on Earth before.
19:43We have whole tyrannosaur skeletons and fossils of other lizards, so what's the problem?
19:49Well, scientists can extract DNA from them and grow a dinosaur.
19:53But it's not so easy.
19:55People can recreate extinct animals or replenish the population of mammals on the verge of extinction
20:01thanks to fresh samples of soft tissues and DNA stored in laboratories.
20:06But the dinosaur specimens are several tens of millions of years old.
20:10There are some molecules of life that remain that archaeologists extracted worldwide.
20:16Still, they are all like pieces of a big puzzle.
20:20This genetic material is not enough to recreate the entire dinosaur code.
20:25Genetic material begins to go bad as soon as life ceases.
20:29And now, imagine how many different upheavals and weather conditions
20:33one dino skeleton could survive for millions of years.
20:37At first, it could burn because of a fire.
20:41It could get underwater.
20:42And after that, fall to the ground where it spent an eternity before archaeologists found it.
20:48Almost nothing remains of the genetic code.
20:51However, one company called Colossal decided to try to recreate the ancient animals using the DNA found.
20:59Only instead of dinosaurs, they wanted to bring back a woolly mammoth.
21:03According to the authors of this project, mammoths can be helpful to the planet.
21:08They can fertilize the soil with their manure, filling it with valuable elements,
21:13ensuring good growth of meadows, and other things like that.
21:16To implement such an ambitious project, scientists used mammoth bodies well-preserved in the coal tundra.
21:23But it turned out that there was not a single living cell in them.
21:27Scientists couldn't clone a mammoth based on preserved DNA.
21:31But the company had a plan B.
21:33They decided to find the missing pieces of the DNA puzzle in the woolly mammoth's closest relative,
21:39which is the Asian elephant.
21:42Using full-fledged living cells with DNA parts of mammoths,
21:46scientists hope to edit the genome and create a new, perfect animal.
21:50They plan to remove one detail from the DNA of an Asian elephant and insert a mammoth cell there.
21:57The new mammoth may have a thick coat, hard skin, a thick layer of subcutaneous fat,
22:03and other functions necessary for survival in the coal.
22:06And what if we do the same with dinosaurs?
22:09If the pieces of the puzzle can't be preserved in dinosaur fossils,
22:13then you can find them in the DNA of other animals,
22:17the modern descendants of the formidable lizards.
22:19For example, a modern chicken and an ostrich may be direct relatives of a tyrannosaurus rex.
22:26Look at the running chicken and a computer model of a moving dinosaur.
22:31You could say it's poultry in motion.
22:33They're similar in some ways.
22:35In addition, the structure of the skeleton of birds is similar to the skeleton of a T-Rex.
22:41But crossing the genes of a dinosaur and a chicken is quite a perplexing task with an unpredictable result.
22:49Scientists needed to rewrite the gene to endow the chicken with some reptilian properties.
22:54As a result, they recreated the dinosaur-like teeth and hands of a velociraptor.
23:00In this way, scientists can get chickenosaurus.
23:03But how many variations can appear from a test tube during such work?
23:07Many T-Rex with a chicken beak.
23:10Or imagine a feathered velociraptor.
23:12Or an ordinary chicken with a toothy beak and scales instead of feathers.
23:17What if a chicken's body demands meat, but its brain stays vegetarian?
23:22According to scientists, such operations may require about 500 animals.
23:27What to do with them after the experiments?
23:29What if many of them are born suffering?
23:32And all for what?
23:33So that people can come to the zoo and look at mutant chickens?
23:36This is a gross intrusion into the natural process of evolution.
23:41If we create a new species, how will it affect the rest?
23:45What if mutant dinosaurs break free and increase their population, destroying the local fauna?
23:51Many scientists want to know more about dinosaurs without creating them.
23:55We think we know everything about these lizards, thanks to the movies and documentaries.
24:00But there are many mysteries around them.
24:02How could they support their heavy bodies?
24:04How did their lungs work in the distant past when there was twice as much carbon dioxide in the air?
24:11Is it true that dinosaurs produced enzymes to get more nutrients from plants?
24:16Researchers claim that it's unnecessary to interfere with evolution and conduct genetic experiments to answer these questions.
24:23But let's imagine that in the distant future, scientists manage to create dinosaurs from the genome of birds and other
24:31animals.
24:31And these dinosaurs look pretty normal without any mutations.
24:35How will the planet change?
24:38Well, firstly, there would be many theme parks and zoos with live dinosaurs.
24:42Initially, only the rich would be the main visitors to these places.
24:46But over time, the prices would drop and allow ordinary people to visit dino parks.
24:52Many would want to have pet lizards.
24:54You probably saw how a tiger or another wild cat lived in the house on TV or the internet.
25:00So, imagine that people will keep small jumping lizards, like these guys, in their apartments.
25:06Dinosaurs would live on huge farms or reserves.
25:09There would be vast ranches with a herd of Triceratops or Stegosaurus.
25:13People would train many lizards and make them helpers in agriculture.
25:18Instead of a pack of oxen, you could see Diplodocus plowing it away somewhere in the fields.
25:24Also, there would be dinosaur races.
25:26People would make billions on dinosaurs.
25:29But, eventually, all this would lead to disaster.
25:33Some dinosaurs would have started living in the wild, increasing their offspring, and taking out other animal species from the
25:39fauna.
25:40This would lead to an ecological catastrophe.
25:42What if Ichiothors or Plesiosaurs got into the ocean and increased their population?
25:48They would quickly destroy other marine life.
25:51People wouldn't be able to sail on ships, as one sea lizard can easily turn over a small vessel or
25:57bite it in two.
25:59People would have to face great danger.
26:01In this case, the billions earned from the dinosaurs would be spent on fighting them.
26:06And it would be quite difficult, since dinosaurs have thick, rough skin, strong jaws, and muscles.
26:12And what if people accidentally created an intelligent species?
26:17Imagine that a T-Rex would appear, who would decide to start a revolution against humanity.
26:22In this case, we could lose first place in the food chain.
26:26And then people would realize that Jurassic Park was a bad idea.
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