We could kickstart life on another planet. Should we? | Betül Kaçar

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2022

⏱️ 11 minutes

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Summary

"Life makes our planet an incredibly exotic place compared to the rest of the known universe," says astrobiologist Betül Kaçar, whose research uses statistics and mathematical models to simulate ancient environments and gather insights into the origins of existence. In this fascinating talk, she explores how a deeper understanding of chemistry could lead to the "secret sauce" for sparking life on other planets -- and asks us to ponder an important question: If we could kickstart life in the universe, should we?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	It's TED Talks Daily. I'm Elise Hu.
0:06.5	Scientists and astrobiologist Betul Kachar explores the origins of life to understand where it's going.
0:14.4	It could also predict the beginnings of new life.
0:17.8	Her talk from Ted Monterey in 2021 links her work to the larger questions about what it means to be alive.
0:28.3	Imagine two universes. In one of these universes, life flourishes on nearly every planet you can encounter. Floating in the
0:42.1	atmosphere, swimming in the seas, lounging on the beaches, life in every body form and size you can
0:52.4	imagine. Now, imagine the other universe, where life is nowhere to be found.
1:01.7	Stars collide, galaxies explode, meteorites crash, asteroids everywhere.
1:09.4	A town of action, but no life. Let me ask you this.
1:14.9	Which one of these universes is more interesting to you? Which one has more value?
1:23.2	So today, I want to take you to a journey to explore and understand origin of life,
1:30.5	the future and where it is headed,
1:33.7	and an ethical dilemma that may rise from understanding this.
1:38.0	First things first.
1:39.7	Earth was formed 4.5 billion years ago.
1:43.5	Life happened fairly quickly within the first few hundred
1:47.2	million years. So that's very fast. Think about that next time you feel like you're aging too fast.
1:54.7	You're not, you're fine. And here is how life works. Life is a form of chemistry.
2:02.0	A form of chemistry that explores solutions in response to the problems in its own immediate chemical environment.
2:10.8	Life is a form of chemistry that retains a memory of these solutions over billions of years.
2:20.3	And life's first solution was quite the trick. Copy itself.
2:22.3	This is astounding.
	...

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