Science is all about answering the big questions, and they don’t make questions any bigger than “Where does life come from?”. In this edition of Mind Blown will discuss some of the more far out Scientific theories concerning the origins of life on Earth.
Let’s start by getting the more mundane theories out of the way first. Lightning zapping some primordial goo and creating amino acids. I mean its cool but its hardly brain bending. Organic compounds muddled around in hydro-thermal vents? Boring. Panspermia? The theory that life came to Earth via a piece of space rock? Bingo. That’s what I’m talking about.
Basically those Scientists who support the Panspermia hypothesis postulate that microscopic life exists throughout the universe and is capable of surviving in space under the right conditions. When one of those other planets out their breaks apart because of a collision with a moon or an asteroid or some other kind of space junk. The organisms are trapped and frozen becoming hitchhikers on the traveling rocks of the galaxy. At least until their ride crashes into another planet and they emerge from their hibernation enjoying their totally habitable new world. Think about it, all this time we’ve been looking for life that’s not of this world and we could have been staring at it in a mirror this entire time.
Some people even like to take the concept of life from another world to the next (kind of gross) level. They believe that it was not a rouge meteor loaded with alien proteins that randomly collided with earth and gave life a jump start, but rather the discarded waste of a passing space ship that got the amino acids churning. Yeah you read that right, there is a (small) section of the scientific community that thinks we may just be descended from space poo. And as odd as that theory sounds, there is no scientific evidence out there that disproves it. Disturbing right? Still that’s not any crazier than thinking a magic man in the sky spoke us all into existence, is it?
So the next time you ask an astronaut how they go to the bathroom in space remember, they may be responsible for a whole new biosphere someday.