Life is 12 billion years old
Life on Earth is thought to have existed for at least 3.6 billion years.
It's a big question - when did life on Earth begin? - but scientists have been looking into an even bigger one - when did life begin period?
According to Space.com, a team of astronomers have calculated life first popped its head up in our universe 12 billion years ago. That's not too long after the big bang (about 14 billion years ago).
The star-lovers have been guestimating when the elements we know are life-friendly came about.
Throw these biogenic elements - like carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorous, sulfur, iron and magnesium - together with a solvant (water), a source of energy and enough time to get to know each other, and hey presto! Lovely life.
Every element bar hydrogen was created by stars. The heaviest were forged in great supernova explosions when stars end their life with a bang (an example is pictured above).
Smaller stars live for longer and will create the lighter elements, like carbon, while the big boys burn out fast, chucking out the heavier stuff such as iron.
Using what we know about star formation after the big bang, the astronomers found that some biogenic elements built up fast, while others were a little shy.
But just two billion years after the universe burst into existence the conditions had settled down enough to be ripe for life.
I think this is an excellent example of clever science, using known facts to answer a question nobody had bothered looking at before.
Often scientific discovery is advancing at such break neck speeds that we don't get the time to stop for breath and actually use what we've found out.
Bravo to the astronomers for taking the time to ponder.
Weird Science Factoid: Stannous fluoride, which is used in toothpaste to fight fillings, is made from recycled tin.
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Authors
Daniel Smith - a long time ago, in a galaxy far away just north of Watford, Daniel fancied himself as a scientist but turned out to be the worst scientist since that bloke who mapped out all those canals on Mars that turned out to be scratches on his telescope's lens. Luckily, he is now not working on the Large Hadron Collider inadvertently creating a black hole that would swallow the world but is safely behind a desk writing this blog, bringing you the fantastical underbelly of nature... weird science.
