https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX7PdJIGiCw
Truly one of the best videos I’ve ever watched. Left me with audible reactions.
Really? How can a bunch of very fundamental atoms and molecules become living creatures like us?
It’s through preserving stability and natural selection.
Here’s my over-simplified understanding of this topic:
At first, there were only atoms.
But the universe was full of light and energy. Some of that energy hit those atoms.
Over billions of years, by pure chance, these atoms attracted each other and combined to become more stable forms — molecules.
Unstable molecules could form too, but because they were unstable, they quickly disappeared.
After billions more years, some molecules, due to specific traits in their chemical structures, developed the ability to attract nearby atoms to form copies of themselves.
This is replication.
Molecules with weaker stability (for example, those whose atoms could be stolen by nearby molecules or separated by energy) didn’t replicate well. Natural selection favored stronger, more stable molecules.
Over time, the interactions between molecules became so complex that they started to develop traits enhancing their stability.
They began forming shells around groups of molecules to protect them, and capturing energy from the environment to aid replication.
This is a cell.
Through natural selection, stronger cells survived and replicated. They could bond together and form intercellular interactions, allowing them to exchange energy and increase their chances of survival.
These groups of cells became so complex that they developed different types of cells with specific functions — forming living organisms.
Over billions of years, living organisms evolved into plants, animals, and eventually, us.
Natural selection isn’t just a process happening to living organisms. It has occured and continues to occur at the smallest physical levels as well: among molecules.
Today, we know these survival and replication traits as genes. Genes exist in (almost) every cell. The traits they carry have become so complex that we don’t fully understand them yet. But these genes always favor replicating themselves. That’s why animals strive to survive and reproduce. That’s we bond with and protect our families.
Such a well-made video that perfectly explains evolution.