Are We the Aliens? Did Life on Earth Come From Space
Aug 12, 2025, 02:15 PM
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Did life originate on Earth—or arrive from space? This podcast-exclusive investigation weighs panspermia against abiogenesis, following astrobiology, meteorite chemistry, and extremophile survival to ask whether humanity may be cosmic hitchhikers.
This episode is produced exclusively for the Divergent Files Podcast.
What if life on Earth didn’t begin here at all?
This episode takes a truth-first look at one of science’s most provocative questions: whether life originated locally through chemistry—or was seeded from space through panspermia. No hype. No shortcuts. Just evidence, limits, and the gaps scientists still argue about.
We put panspermia on trial against the leading mainstream models of life’s origin. We examine classic abiogenesis experiments, hydrothermal and alkaline vent chemistry, the RNA World hypothesis, iron–sulfur surfaces, and clay-templating theories—then ask where each model succeeds, where it struggles, and what the data actually show.
From there, we follow the receipts outward.
We examine meteorites rich in complex organics, cometary detections of amino acids, and the growing body of research showing that some life can survive vacuum, radiation, extreme cold, and deep-time dormancy. We look at extremophiles like tardigrades and radiation-resistant microbes, and what their resilience implies about interplanetary transfer.
We also confront the fossil record’s hardest questions, including the Cambrian Explosion—when complex life appears abruptly—and whether that “switch-on” fits better with gradual chemistry or an external biological spark.
This episode breaks down:
• Panspermia basics: lithopanspermia, radiopanspermia, and directed panspermia
• Abiogenesis and the leap from chemistry to biology
• Hydrothermal and alkaline vents as natural energy reactors
• The promise and problems of the RNA World
• Meteorites and comets as delivery systems for life’s building blocks
• Survival in space and deep-time dormancy
• Where to look next for confirmation—oceans beneath the ice of Europa and Enceladus, the chemistry of Titan, the clouds of Venus, and briny worlds like Ceres
This isn’t an argument that panspermia must be true.
It’s an honest audit of what science can explain—and what it still can’t.
If life’s ingredients are common in space, if survival across space is possible, and if Earth’s early chemistry leaves unanswered leaps… then the most unsettling possibility isn’t that we’re alone.
It’s that we’re not from here.
Stay curious. Stay grounded.
And remember… no matter what they tell you, the truth is still out there.
What if life on Earth didn’t begin here at all?
This episode takes a truth-first look at one of science’s most provocative questions: whether life originated locally through chemistry—or was seeded from space through panspermia. No hype. No shortcuts. Just evidence, limits, and the gaps scientists still argue about.
We put panspermia on trial against the leading mainstream models of life’s origin. We examine classic abiogenesis experiments, hydrothermal and alkaline vent chemistry, the RNA World hypothesis, iron–sulfur surfaces, and clay-templating theories—then ask where each model succeeds, where it struggles, and what the data actually show.
From there, we follow the receipts outward.
We examine meteorites rich in complex organics, cometary detections of amino acids, and the growing body of research showing that some life can survive vacuum, radiation, extreme cold, and deep-time dormancy. We look at extremophiles like tardigrades and radiation-resistant microbes, and what their resilience implies about interplanetary transfer.
We also confront the fossil record’s hardest questions, including the Cambrian Explosion—when complex life appears abruptly—and whether that “switch-on” fits better with gradual chemistry or an external biological spark.
This episode breaks down:
• Panspermia basics: lithopanspermia, radiopanspermia, and directed panspermia
• Abiogenesis and the leap from chemistry to biology
• Hydrothermal and alkaline vents as natural energy reactors
• The promise and problems of the RNA World
• Meteorites and comets as delivery systems for life’s building blocks
• Survival in space and deep-time dormancy
• Where to look next for confirmation—oceans beneath the ice of Europa and Enceladus, the chemistry of Titan, the clouds of Venus, and briny worlds like Ceres
This isn’t an argument that panspermia must be true.
It’s an honest audit of what science can explain—and what it still can’t.
If life’s ingredients are common in space, if survival across space is possible, and if Earth’s early chemistry leaves unanswered leaps… then the most unsettling possibility isn’t that we’re alone.
It’s that we’re not from here.
Stay curious. Stay grounded.
And remember… no matter what they tell you, the truth is still out there.