WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Is Life on Earth of Alien Origin?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey

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<v Speaker 1>brain Stuff. I'm Lauren Vogel Bom and today's episode as

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<v Speaker 1>a classic from the archives. Some of our episodes deal

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<v Speaker 1>with incredibly mundane topics, how everyday objects are made, or

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<v Speaker 1>the history behind some specific law or tradition, and I

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<v Speaker 1>like those, but I also like this one because the

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<v Speaker 1>question asks is a little bit better. How did life

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<v Speaker 1>on Earth begin? Could it have come from beyond the stars?

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<v Speaker 1>Hey brain Stuff, Lauren vogel bomb Here, imagine a comet

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<v Speaker 1>hurtling through the nothingness of space. It smashes into a planet,

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<v Speaker 1>causing destruction, but also bringing life. That's because hitching a

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<v Speaker 1>ride on the surface of the comet were tiny traces

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<v Speaker 1>of organic material or even alien eggs, explaining how life

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<v Speaker 1>could spread across the cosmos and derive on our planet.

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<v Speaker 1>Pants Bermia, meaning seeds Everywhere, is the name of the

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<v Speaker 1>theory that life on Earth may have of cosmic origins,

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<v Speaker 1>and it's been both debated by scientists and featured in

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<v Speaker 1>works of science fiction. Now, a group of nearly three

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<v Speaker 1>dozen scientists from around the world are putting a tweak

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<v Speaker 1>in the theory, suggesting not that Earth's earliest life had

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<v Speaker 1>outer space origins, but that pan spermia may be responsible

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<v Speaker 1>for the Cambrian explosion. That's a point in Earth's history,

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<v Speaker 1>approximately four hundred and fifty one million years ago when

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<v Speaker 1>most major animal groups appear in the fossil record. In

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<v Speaker 1>their article cause of Cambrian Explosion Terrestrial or Cosmic, published

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<v Speaker 1>in eighteen issue of the journal Progress in Biophysics and

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<v Speaker 1>Molecular Biology, thirty three scientists tie the rise of unique

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<v Speaker 1>animals tartegrades, octopuses, and the bevy of other odd and

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<v Speaker 1>unique animals that flourished at that time to pan spermia,

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<v Speaker 1>suggesting that many of these relatively bizarre and never before

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<v Speaker 1>seeing creatures descend from organic alien material. The author's right,

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<v Speaker 1>it takes little imagination to consider that the Precambrian Massi

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<v Speaker 1>state auction event was correlated with the impact of a

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<v Speaker 1>giant lifebearing comet and the subsequent seating of Earth with

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<v Speaker 1>new cosmic derived cellular organisms and viral genes. But we

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<v Speaker 1>haven't cracked the mystery of life's origins just yet. This

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<v Speaker 1>new paper isn't built on any new discoveries or research.

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<v Speaker 1>It's a literature review that, for the most part, references

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<v Speaker 1>the author's own existing work, but that's by design. The

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<v Speaker 1>authors acknowledge. They write, we are acutely aware that mainstream

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<v Speaker 1>thinking on the origin and further evolution of life on

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<v Speaker 1>Earth is anchored firmly in the terrestrial paradigm. Our aim

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<v Speaker 1>here is to facilitate further discussion in the biophysical, biomedical,

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<v Speaker 1>and evolutionary science communities. Panspermia is at this point only

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<v Speaker 1>a concept, but it dates back well before the last

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<v Speaker 1>hundred years or so of modern science fiction. Way back

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<v Speaker 1>at the turn of the eighteenth century, French diplomat and

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<v Speaker 1>natural historian Benois de May proposed that life across the

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<v Speaker 1>cosmos could have been seated from space, and a few

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<v Speaker 1>scholars even interpret ancient Greek philosopher and Xagorus of Clazomenas

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<v Speaker 1>musings along the same lines. He spoke vaguely of cosmic

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<v Speaker 1>seeds two thousand, five hundred years ago. The paper has

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<v Speaker 1>already drawn skepticism. Astrobiologist Francis Westall, for instance, points out

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<v Speaker 1>that while some forms of extremophile life have been observed

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<v Speaker 1>surviving in the vacuum of space for short periods of time,

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<v Speaker 1>this new paper suppositions would require eggs, embryos or other

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<v Speaker 1>cells survive thousands of years, if not more, in space.

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<v Speaker 1>Westall told NEWSWEK when discussing the paper, Unfortunately, it is

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<v Speaker 1>all too easy to pull information out of the literature

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<v Speaker 1>to support one's hypothesis. Nature is incredible, and I do

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<v Speaker 1>not think it is necessary to call on extraterrestrials to

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<v Speaker 1>explain it. An alternate theory for the Cambrian explosion goes

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<v Speaker 1>by the name Snowball Earth, and it suggests that seven

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<v Speaker 1>and fifteen million years ago our planet became encased in

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<v Speaker 1>ice for a hundred and fifty million years, killing most

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<v Speaker 1>existing life forms, and that a massive thaw allowed for

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<v Speaker 1>an explosion of biodiversity. Today's episode is based on the

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<v Speaker 1>article panspermia Did alien seeds cause life to explode on Earth?

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<v Speaker 1>On how stuff Works dot Com written by Christopher hassi Otis.

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<v Speaker 1>Brain Stuff is production of by Heart Radio in partnership

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<v Speaker 1>with how stuff Works dot Com, and it's produced by

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<v Speaker 1>Tyler Klain. Four more podcasts from my Heart Radio visit

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