'Hey Bill Nye, What If Life Had Evolved From Viruses?’ #TuesdaysWithBill | Big Think

'Hey Bill Nye, What If Life Had Evolved From Viruses?’ #TuesdaysWithBill

Watch the newest video from Big Think

Join Big Think Edge for exclusive videos

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Evolutionary biologists generally agree that humans evolved from a bacteria-like ancestor, rather than a viral one. But what if we're chemically connected? What would life look like if it had evolved from viruses instead of bacteria? Maybe it’s what you see in the mirror, jokes Bill Nye – before setting the record straight. Most evolutionary biologists agree that bacteria-like organisms are the ancestors of humans. About two billion years ago, eukaryotes forked off from bacteria, eventually giving shape to humans, animals, plants and fungi. It’s anyone’s guess what kind of organism you’d get from the evolution of viruses but, says Nye, it’s very reasonable that there is a common chemical ancestor for both viruses and bacteria, and if someone wanted to roll up their sleeves, it would be possible to prove it. Bill Nye's most recent book is Unstoppable: Harnessing Science to Change the World.

Bill Nye's most recent book is Unstoppable: Harnessing Science to Change the World.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BILL NYE, THE SCIENCE GUY:

Bill Nye, scientist, engineer, comedian, author, and inventor, is a man with a mission: to help foster a scientifically literate society, to help people everywhere understand and appreciate the science that makes our world work. Making science entertaining and accessible is something Bill has been doing most of his life. In Seattle Nye began to combine his love of science with his flair for comedy, when he won the Steve Martin look-alike contest and developed dual careers as an engineer by day and a stand-up comic by night. Nye then quit his day engineering day job and made the transition to a night job as a comedy writer and performer on Seattle's home-grown ensemble comedy show “Almost Live." This is where “Bill Nye the Science Guy®" was born. The show appeared before Saturday Night Live and later on Comedy Central, originating at KING-TV, Seattle's NBC affiliate.

While working on the Science Guy show, Nye won seven national Emmy Awards for writing, performing, and producing. The show won 18 Emmys in five years. In between creating the shows, he wrote five children's books about science, including his latest title, “Bill Nye's Great Big Book of Tiny Germs." Nye is the host of three currently-running television series. “The 100 Greatest Discoveries" airs on the Science Channel. “The Eyes of Nye" airs on PBS stations across the country. Bill's latest project is hosting a show on Planet Green called “Stuff Happens." It's about environmentally responsible choices that consumers can make as they go about their day and their shopping. Also, you'll see Nye in his good-natured rivalry with his neighbor Ed Begley. They compete to see who can save the most energy and produce the smallest carbon footprint. Nye has 4,000 watts of solar power and a solar-boosted hot water system. There's also the low water use garden and underground watering system. It's fun for him; he's an engineer with an energy conservation hobby. Nye is currently the Executive Director of The Planetary Society, the world's largest space interest organization.

TRANSCRIPT:

Viewer: Hey Bill. I'm just curious, what would life look like if it had evolved from viruses instead of bacteria?

Bill Nye: Maybe life did evolve from viruses and we just don't know it. However, it sure looks like bacteria went off on their own. And talking some more about me, in my book Undeniable, which I like to think of as a primer on evolution, I speculated that viruses should have their own domain of life, the vera, which in the Latin would be a second declension noun. In Latin apparently they did not have a plural of virus, they never needed one, they never used it in the way we use it today. So I don't know if life evolved from viruses, but in my own experience I am thoroughly charmed by the science fiction story Andromeda Strain where the compartmentalization of the chemicals needed for life was done with crystals rather than with membranes. And it's science fiction everybody, but bacteria are different from viruses in that bacteria have these separate structures whereas viruses seem to be a single molecule, what you might think of as a single molecule. And so viruses are more akin to proteins than they are to bacteria, but proteins are created by bacteria so it is very reasonable that there is some ancestor to viruses and bacteria so that they have in common a common chemical ancestor. Proving that seems to me it should be possible.

Read the full transcript at