The Odds of Life - THIS CHANGED MY MIND

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There's been some new studies in the fields of paleopaleontology that have changed my mind about one of the most profound questions - does life start easily on Earth-like planets? Join me today to find out why.

Written & presented by Prof. David Kipping. Edited by Jorge Casas.

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THANK-YOU to T. Widdowson, D. Smith, L. Sanborn, C. Bottaccini, D. Daughaday, S. Brownlee, E. West, T. Zajonc, A. De Vaal, M. Elliott, B. Daniluk, S. Vystoropskyi, S. Lee, Z. Danielson, C. Fitzgerald, C. Souter, M. Gillette, T. Jeffcoat, J. Rockett, D. Murphree, M. Sanford, T. Donkin, A. Schoen, K. Dabrowski, R. Ramezankhani, J. Armstrong, S. Marks, B. Smith, J. Kruger, S. Applegate, E. Zahnle, N. Gebben, J. Bergman, C. Macdonald, M. Hedlund, P. Kaup, W. Evans, N. Corwin, K. Howard, L. Deacon, G. Metts, R. Provost, G. Fullwood, N. De Haan, R. Williams, E. Garland, R. Lovely, A. Cornejo, D. Compos, F. Demopoulos, G. Bylinsky, J. Werner, S. Thayer, T. Edris, F. Blood, M. O'Brien, D. Lee, J. Sargent, M. Czirr, F. Krotzer, I. Williams, J. Sattler, B. Reese, O. Shabtay, X. Yao, S. Saverys, A. Nimmerjahn, C. Seay, D. Johnson, L. Cunningham, M. Morrow, M. Campbell, B. Devermont, Y. Muheim, A. Stark, C. Caminero, P. Borisoff, A. Donovan & H. Schiff.

REFERENCES

► Kipping 2020, "An objective Bayesian analysis of life's early start and our late arrival", PNAS, 117, 11995,

► Graham et al. 2024, "Substantial extension of the lifetime of the terrestrial biosphere", Planetary Science Journal, accepted

► Moody et al. 2024, "The nature of the last universal common ancestor and its impact on the early Earth system", Nature Ecology & Evolution, 8, 1654

► Nutman et al. 2016, "Rapid emergence of life shown by discovery of 3,700millionyearold microbial structures", Nature, 537, 535

► Schmidt & Frank 2019, "The Silurian HypothesisWould it be possible to detect an industrial civilization in the geological record?", IJAsB, 18, 142

► Schopf 2006, "Fossil evidence of Archaean life", Phil. Tran. Roy. Soc. B, 361, 1470

► Wilde et al. 2001, "Evidence from detrital zircons for the existence of continental crust and oceans on the Earth 4.4 Gyr ago", Nature, 409, 175

► Allwood 2016, "Evidence of life in Earth's oldest rocks", 537, 500

► Bell et al. 2015, "Potentially biogenic carbon preserved in a 4.1 billionyearold zircon", PNAS, 112, 14518

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