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Ancient Life as Old as the Universe

50 videos recommended on HN
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1 HN user recommended this explainer1 month2023–2024 score 1
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

HN commenters bring it up in threads about asteroid samples and panspermia as an accessible take on early-universe habitability.

Kurzgesagt explores the idea that life might have arisen shortly after the Big Bang, when the whole universe was warm enough to be habitable. It discusses what that would mean for the origin and spread of life.

“There is an excellent recent video on topic from Kurzgesagt” (HN, 2023)

1 recommendations · 3 citations · Explainers

4 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@djedr Oct 2023 Recommends
on HN thread NASA asteroid sample contains life-critical water and carbon
> offering more evidence for the theory that life on Earth was seeded from outer space. This hypothesis seems to be getting more and more traction. There is an excellent recent video on topic from Kurzgesagt [0]. Interesting that neither the video nor the article uses the name panspermia[1] to refer to the hypothesis. I wonder why that is. Wikipedia also states that "[the fringe theory] is also criticized because it cannot be tested experimentally". Can't it? If we ever find an organism based on DNA compatible with organisms on Earth, wouldn't that validate it? [0] [this video] [1] [link]
Recent video on life seeded from space.

Citations, criticism and jokes

@adolph Jan 2024 Cites it
on HN thread Antarctic fungi survive Martian conditions on the International Space Station
One of the main ideas explained in this video is that the very early universe (i.e. the universe “right after the Big Bang” in cosmic timescales) might have been habitable for a short period of time. During this time window, the right temperature to support life wouldn’t have been restricted to the proximity of stars, but would have instead taken place absolutely everywhere in space due to the intrinsic temperature of the universe itself. [link] [this video]
Explains the early universe may have been habitable everywhere.

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