Life may have originated more than once on Earth...and today's living cells might have two separate origins.
Fascinating new research traces life's likely beginnings to a hydrothermal vent environment.
https://www.hhu.de/en/news/two-origins-of-life #science #nature #history
A big mystery is how life got started without the enzymes essential to modern biology. One idea is that metals + phosphate provided the kick. Bacteria and archaea then developed independent paths to a living cell.
Who knows what other life forms didn't make it?
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aef3128 #science #nature #life
@coreyspowell I mean, we've always had that meme about The Powerhouse Of The Cell being some kind of completely unrelated symbiotic lifeform we kidnapped.
Had a whole horror video game about it in the nineties.
So I'm prepared to nod along.
@coreyspowell
What blows my mind is how the molecules got together to form the first proto-RNA . . .
. . . and discovered evolution.
. . .
Very probably, given how many times things have evolved into crabs.
@Walrus @coreyspowell But you don't get that sort of convergent evolution until you've got multicellular life, and you don't get multicellular life until something so astronomically unlikely occurs (the eukaryotic revolution) that it took 2 billion years to happen even on Earth, and so far does not appear to have happened anywhere else in the universe.
The solution to the Fermi "paradox" is probably that nearly all life fails to evolve beyond simple prokaryotic cells even in ideal conditions. 🤷🏻♂️
Aug 21, 2026, 4:09 PM@ApostateEnglishman @Walrus @coreyspowell Rare Earth hypothesis means there are plenty of easily terraformable worlds for any multicellular life that can be bothered.
That's how I get over that likely but somewhat depressing conclusion.
Please help me support my family. I am truly alone in this world with no one to stand by me in caring for them. I am carrying this responsibility by myself and I am struggling.
Brothers and Sisters in humanity, even your small donations are helping. Any donation will help the suffering in GAZA.
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@franciswashere
Please help me support my family. I am truly alone in this world with no one to stand by me in caring for them. I am carrying this responsibility by myself and I am struggling.
Brothers and Sisters in humanity, even your small donations are helping. Any donation will help the suffering in GAZA.
Please donate to the link below and in Bio. Please Repost
🙏 🤲 💔
https://chuffed.org/project/171645-manar-in-gaza-help-her-family-rebuild-hope
We are starving here. 💔 There is almost nothing left for us, except hope in the hearts of kind and compassionate people.
I’m asking you from the bottom of my heart to please help me provide food and basic necessities for my family and the children. Even the smallest donation can make a real difference for us right now.
Please don’t forget us. 🙏 Your support could help us get through another day. ❤️
http://www.gofundme.com/f/y59pe8-help-alaa-and-her-children-rebuild-their-lives-in-gaza
@franciswashere
@coreyspowell Mom, that you? I know you're still venting but I was hoping to get closer.
@coreyspowell So you're saying Earth was better fluffed for spatial penetration...
@coreyspowell All while every book that covered the matter was adamant that it was a singularity. Very curious now!
@coreyspowell @rubisco It seems highly improbable to me that a very complex genetic code would evolve before free-living cells.