How Did Life Begin?

How did life begin? Before humans. Before dinosaurs. Before plants, animals, or even the first cells, Earth was a world of rocks, water, gases, minerals, heat, and chemistry. Somehow, from that chemistry, life eventually appeared. But how? In this episode of STRANGE HUMANS, we explore one of the biggest mysteries in science: the origin of life. We look at the young Earth, the chemistry that existed before life, primitive cell-like compartments, the RNA world hypothesis, evolution, and LUCA — the Last Universal Common Ancestor. But LUCA wasn't the first life. It was already part of a much longer evolutionary story. Scientists are still investigating where and how the first living systems emerged. Possible environments include hydrothermal vents, hot springs, tide pools, sea ice, and other environments where chemistry, energy, and concentration could come together. We still don't know exactly how life began. And that's what makes the story so strange. The more you learn about humans, the stranger we get. SOURCES & FURTHER READING: NASA Science — How did life first emerge on Earth? https://science.nasa.gov/astrobiology... NASA Science — Where could life have gotten started on Earth? https://science.nasa.gov/astrobiology... NASA Science — How did the first cells arise? https://science.nasa.gov/astrobiology... The nature of the last universal common ancestor and its impact on the early Earth system (2024) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles... The Emergence of Life in the Light of Evolution (2026) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles... Assessing the Earliest Evidence for Life in the Geologic and Genomic Records (2026) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42201... #HowDidLifeBegin #OriginOfLife #STRANGEHUMANS