One Single Ancestor Gave Rise to All Life on Earth. Even You.
Welcome to the first episode of The Astounding Pop Mech Show, our weekly video podcast series where we unpack the weirdest, wildest breakthroughs and try to answer the biggest questions in science, tech, and human ingenuity—one mind-blowing discovery at a time.
In this episode, hosts Andrew Daniels and John Gilpatrick dive deep into the mysterious origins of all life on Earth—and the ancient microbe that might be our great-great-great (times a billion) grandparent.
A study suggests that LUCA, the Last Universal Common Ancestor, may have lived 4.2 billion years ago—earlier than we ever thought—and may have even had an immune system. Andrew and John break down what that means, how scientists figured it out, and why LUCA might just hold the key to understanding your very existence.Watch the full episode above now, and tune in for a new astounding installment every Friday on PopularMechanics.com!
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