Ideas On The Origin of Life as Semi-Randomly Chosen by Joe, Part 3 of 4:

A Planet Wrought With Destruction, Suddenly Begets Life

In video 1, we talked about “star stuff”. In video 2, Carl Sagan talked about creating life’s building blocks from basic chemicals. COSMOS was a long time ago, how ‘bout something more recent?

In this segment from NOVA’s “Origins” series, Neil deGrasse Tyson goes into even greater detail about the violent history of Earth. Cosmic warfare and the “heavy bombardment” created an environment that was at the same time inhospitable, but teeming with the building blocks for future life. 

In the time since COSMOS, scientists have been able to dig through geologic fossils looking for signs of ancient complex biochemistry, from that moment when Earth tipped from destruction to biogenesis. We have good proof that some ingredients for life arrived from outer space in the form of organic seeds from meteorites! And ideas about where else we may find life are beginning to take form … perhaps even in our own solar system (hint: Europa looks good).

Warning: Extreme astronomical violence ahead, if that bothers you.

All four videos in the series

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Human Evolution Episode 1 (2010) (NOVA) 1/4 HD

Broadcast (2010) First Steps : Examines the factors that caused us to split from the other great apes. The program explores the fossil of “Selam,” also known as “Lucy’s Child.” Paleoanthropologist Zeray Alemseged spent five years carefully excavating the sandstone-embedded fossil. NOVA’s cameras are there to capture the unveiling of the face, spine, and shoulder blades of this 3.3 million-year-old fossil child. And NOVA takes viewers “inside the skull” to show how our ancestors’ brains had begun to change from those of the apes.Why did leaps in human evolution take place? “First Steps” explores a provocative “big idea” that sharp swings of climate were a key factor.

Nothing is more fascinating to us than, well, us. Where did we come from? What makes us human? NOVA’s groundbreaking investigation explores how new discoveries are transforming views of our earliest ancestors. Featuring interviews with world-renowned scientists, footage shot in the trenches as fossils were unearthed, and stunning computer-generated animation, Becoming Human brings early hominids to life, examining how they lived and how we became the creative and adaptable modern humans of today. In the first episode, NOVA encounters Selam, the amazingly complete remains of a 3 million year-old child, packed with clues to why we split from the apes, came down from the trees, and started walking upright. In gripping forensic detail, the second episode investigates the riddle of Turkana Boy -a tantalizing fossil of Homo erectus, the first ancestor to leave Africa and colonize the globe. What led to this first great African exodus? In the final episode, Becoming Human explores the origins of us -where modern humans and our capacities for art, invention, and survival came from, and what happened when we encountered the mysterious Neanderthals. Crucial new evidence comes from the recent decoding of the Neanderthal genome. Did modern humans interbreed with Neanderthals? Exterminate them? Becoming Human examines why we survived while our other ancestral cousins-including Indonesia’s bizarre 3 foot-high Hobbit -died out. And NOVA poses the intriguing question: are we still evolving today?

Wonderful brain food for your Saturday.

Nova Science Now digs into the creation of Auto-Tune …

Love it or hate it, Neil deGrasse Tyson (linking to this picture again, because I can’t help it) talks to the man who invented the technology and shows you how it works.

But you don’t care about that part! You’ll probably just want to skip to about 5:50 and hear Dr. Tyson serenading you with his auto-tuned pipes.

(by holidaygirl99)

Source: youtube.com