How Was Life On Earth Created? | Decoding The Creation Of Life | Life Beyond Earth
7 Video Views·Jan 15, 2026
With our knowledge of the universe increasing, the possibility of life evolving in oceans on other planets in the solar system seems more real than ever. Scientists across disciplines explore what life-forms found in these environments would be like. Would they contain DNA? Would they be microbial or carbon-based organisms? Researchers at UNSW, Sydney, and Monash University, Victoria, have been seeking answers for years. Watch them discuss their findings and theories on a subject that has fascinated humans for centuries.
The question is no longer if, but when.
Looking for life beyond Earth has been a human obsession for centuries.
Science is overtaking those visions.
We keep looking, and we're getting better at it.
Science and fiction are about to meet in the middle.
When, not if, we come across life beyond Earth.
It appears the fundamental assets to make life are distributed throughout the solar system,
a function of the evolution of planets.
What at first glance appears a simple question,
where can life be, rapidly spirals into a complex conundrum.
The complexity of DNA here on Earth,
and what other environments could facilitate such growth in complexity.
Can biological life even get started in the harsh conditions of the solar system?
Until concrete evidence is available, the question is polarizing.
I can't say for sure, because we've only got the one example of life on Earth to work with so far,
but all the ingredients are out there.
Solar systems make everything you need for life, insofar as we know.
So it could be that matter naturally organizes itself into life.
My answer to the question of whether there's life out there in the universe is I'm afraid I don't know.
The great thing about being a scientist and not a politician,
is that I'm not required to have an opinion on anything.
I'm only required to be able to tell you what the facts tell us.
And what the evidence is that we don't know.
We don't know how life on Earth got started in detail.
We don't know how long it took. We don't know what the preconditions were.
And so life could be incredibly common, because there are lots of planets out there.
Or it could be an incredibly rare event that only happens on one in a billion planets in a galaxy.