The mysterious origins of life on Earth - Luka Seamus Wright

Where on Earth did life begin? Explore the hydrothermal vents in Earth’s crust as simple compounds gave way to complex life.

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Billions of years ago, simple organic compounds assembled into more complex coalitions that could grow and reproduce. At the time, Earth had widespread volcanic activity and a hostile atmosphere that made it almost devoid of a suitable environment for living things. So where did life begin? Luka Wright searches for the cradle of life that gave rise to the billions of species that inhabit our planet.

Lesson by Luka Seamus Wright, directed by Nick Hilditch.

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[cindica]

Luca and the Lost City sounds like a novel I'd like to read.

[poweroffriendship.]

_In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and widely regarded as a bad move._

*~ Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*

[TheScienceofnature]

LUCA, a simple organism without consciousness, struggling into existence, could never know how intelligent beings created from its humble existence, would be so fascinated by it that they set out on a great journey in search of it, and wondered in owe of its impact on this great planet, and possibly on the universe. Imagine how our super intelligent descendants would look in themselves for us, and wonder in owe of our role in their creation.

[matheusmagno]

"can we go on land yet?"
- NO! THE SUN IS A DEADLY LASER
"oh, ok".
- not anymore, there's a blanket!

[mustachecrab]

The thing that kinda screws with me is the fact that a reaction between materials somehow became so complicated that it developed wants and needs. How does an element grow to be that complicated, how would a reaction between water and other elements end up in conciousness. It's like if you just mixed sulphur and iron and it somehow started to make energy and duplicate. It happened once, but i just don't fully get how that could work.

Edit: Dayum, i sparked a conversation, awesome, but i wasn't theorizing about god, i feel like, and i don't mean to offend, but i feel that a god is a cheap answer to a complicated and interesting question, how did a group of inanimate materials grow to become something as complex as biological life.

We have evidence for evolution, through records of various animals that evolution is a thing, and it's pretty logical when you think about it.

Most of this data comes from animals that survive disasters.
What we see then, is that the groups that survived were those, that through random mutation, chance, or just existing genetics, were better suited than other members of their species to handle natural disasters, their descendants then carried those traits with them. The part of the species that didn't have the needed traits died off, while the ones that did have those traits, survived, and had their genes carried forth, and the species evolved, now better suited for their enviroment.

You can look it up, it's about a group of lizards on a tropical island, it's an interesting watch, for both those that believe it and those who don't. Watching stuff like that, understanding it, and making your own opinions about that is the only way to learn.

[SuperSanic..]

Place a magma block under water to make that hydrothermal vents.

[zolanihogana]

My assignment is due in 5 days and I’m here trying to decide if it matters that I do it, whether life matters.

[carloscavada]

What happens when You start a new Minecraft world:

[alexandermestre]

Hydrothermal vent: *exist*
LUCA: it's free real estate

[DiRECs]

4:00 Careful please. Through the wording used, someone might mistakenly understand that life originated in these particular mid-Atlantic ridge vents. You should have said that these vents are today used to study the origin of life. Life existed well before the Atlantic or its vents ever existed.

[amorosogombe]

If life only emerged on earth, in this whole vast universe then imagine how special a natural phenomenon it is. I don't think it's possible though. I think it's a convergent emergent phenomenon because the laws of physics must be consistent across the universe meaning the same process must happen under similar conditions in other parts of the universe. There must be life elsewhere in the universe.

[kishanpatel]

The animation is as always top notch in quality. Thank you so much Ted-Ed for bringing high quality content as always.

[raphaelkap]

All I know is that the sun was a deadly laser but now it's ok there's a blanket

[JustJohn]

Life cannot be contained, life finds a way..

[nuvsh]

Anyone else who finds the visual graphics here AMAZING AND INTUITIVE <33

[mbagaro]

One of the best TED-ed videos to date! Flawless animation and an interesting, though not distracting, background music. Plus great narration as always. Thank you so much for making these videos!

[nileshkulkarni]

teded is so interesting !!! I can never have enough of it .

[baumulrich]

but the mid atlantic ridge didnt exist billions of years ago. it only came into existence when Pangaea broke up 140 million years or so.

[heyo_itsaj]

Life will not be contained
Life breaks free

[sreejasrivaram]

what a perfect timing! Just today learnt about various theories of origin of life in my bio class