For 25 years astronomers have been searching the night sky looking for a Holy Grail: a planet like our own. They’ve found thousands of others worlds but most are nothing like they expected. And many are truly bizarre. Planets without stars, worlds made from diamond, and perhaps weird planets with one side constantly staring at their suns. Could any of these worlds be like Earth, have life like Earth, or is there no place like home? How the Universe Works s5e9: Strangest Alien Worlds
If advanced alien civilisations are out there, the planets of Red Dwarf starts could be the ideal place to find them. ibid.
Earth: a planet defined by life. But is Earth unique? The ingredients for life are spread throughout the universe. Is life inevitable? What does life need to get started? And once started, can life spread? How the Universe Works s7e9: Hunt for Alien Life, Discovery 2020
The Earth is over 4.5 billion years old. Its history is shaped by disaster after disaster. These violent events could be why Earth has life. Earth has walked the line between survival and destruction. Could catastrophe and chaos be the essential ingredients for life? How the Universe Works s10e3: Dark History of Earth
650 million years ago the Earth froze. It pushed life to the verge of extinction. But if it hadn’t, life today would be little more than microscopic slime. This is the story of snowball Earth. Tony Robinson, Catastrophe II: Snowball Earth, Channel 4 2008
The Permian: and the Earth faced the biggest catastrophe it had ever seen. One cataclysmic event kick-started a chain reaction that wiped out 95% of all the animal and plant species on the planet. Tony Robinson, Catastrophe III: Planet of Fire
This layer marks the moment when the world changed; below the line grey rocks full of fossils, full of life; above in the red rocks nothing. Life had almost ceased to exist. ibid.
An impact from out of space: could it have been an asteroid strike? ibid.
The extinction happened over a period of 100,000 years. Far too long to be the result of a meteor strike. The Greenland team’s discovery means that something else must have caused the extinction. ibid.
5% lived, and those survivors are our ancestors of all life on Earth. ibid.
Sixty-five million years ago an asteroid the size of Mount Everest smashed into the Earth at sixty times the speed of sound. It unleashed a series of events that wiped out 70% of all species including the dinosaurs. Tony Robinson, Catastrophe IV: Asteroid Strike
Scientists have found this same layer all around the world. Below it fossils from countless species, above it 70% of them are gone including the dinosaurs. ibid.
The iridium suggested that sixty-five million years ago a massive asteroid hit the planet. At the exact same time as the death of the dinosaurs. ibid.
Sudden and dramatic climate change: dust and ash blocked out the sun; temperatures dropped like a stone and kept on dropping thanks to the impact’s location; the blast generated incredible heat; it vaporised the rock and blasted tons of sulphur dioxide into the air; it mixed with water in the atmosphere to form sulphuric acid droplets: and that was a disaster. ibid.
Carbon-dioxide choked the planet. Temperatures increased by around 20 degrees Celsius over the next hundred years. It was global warming on a fast track. ibid.
It was the meek – the burrowers and the scavengers – who inherited the Earth. ibid.
The world has suffered from a series of global catastrophes. Disasters that have wiped out 99% of all the species that have ever lived. But the forces that wiped out many of our ancestors are still at work today. All we have to protect us is a wisp of atmosphere, and all we have to stand on is a thin crust. Mankind could be the next dominant species to face extinction. This is the story of how vulnerable we really are. Tony Robinson, Catastrophe V: Survival Earth
Finally, and under a minute to midnight, a tough new species marched toward world domination. They spread rapidly adapting to every challenge. This new species was Homo sapiens – us. ibid.
In India genetic diversity is much much lower than it should be. [Dr Stephen] Oppenheimer believes some kind of disaster must have struck India’s early settlers. ibid.
But what if life exists based on other elements? For instance, silicon. Star Trek s1e25: The Devil in the Dark, Spock to Kirk & McCoy
Fascinating. Pure Energy. Pure thought. Totally incorporeal. Not life as we know it at all. Star Trek s1e26: Errand of Mercy, Spock to Kirk & Klingon chief
We’re on over a thousand worlds and spreading out. Life is everywhere. Star Trek s2e9: Metamorphosis, Cochrane, Kirk
Let’s assume that it’s something so completely different that our senses wouldn’t identify it as a life-form. Star Trek s2e13: Obsession, Kirk to Spock
All right, Mr Spock, what do we have? A creature without form, that feeds on horror and fear, that must assume a physical shape to kill. Star Trek s2e14: Wolf in the Fold, Kirk
The normal transporter sequence has been interrupted and we find ourselves on a strange and hostile planet surrounded by creatures belonging to races scattered all through the galaxy. Star Trek s2e16: The Gamesters of Triskelion, Kirk’s log
We have found ... that all life-forms in the galaxy are capable of superior development. ibid. Kirk
All your people must learn before you can reach for the stars. ibid.
Is it possible the rocks have life? Star Trek s3e17: That Which Survives, Kirk
Only life can replicate itself, Doctor. Inorganic or not it is alive. Star Trek: The Next Generation s1e18: Home Soil, Data
It’s energy source is unknown ... They are sure it’s alive. Star Trek: The Next Generation s3e20: Tin Man, guest on board
Tin Man is a living being which has been bred or has adapted itself to serve a purpose. ibid. Data to guest on board
Must living beings have a purpose? Or do we exist for no reason but to exist? ibid. guest on board to Data
Doctor, what is the definition of Life? Star Trek: The Next Generation s6e9: The Quality of Life
The reign of biological life-forms is coming to an end. You, Picard and those like you are obsolete. Star Trek: The Next Generation s7e1: Descent II, Bad Data to Picard
By the Prophets, Odo, I wasn’t even sure you were a life-form. Star Trek: Deep Space Nine s5e12: The Begotten, Dr Mora Pol
Space-dwelling life-forms. Star Trek: Voyager s2e4: Elogium, Chakotay on bridge
I am here to argue for the majesty of life. Star Trek: Voyager s2e18: Death Wish, Q
I should not exist. I was an accident. A random convergence of technologies. I was never meant to be. Star Trek: Voyager s5e2: Drone, One to Seven of Nine
We’ve speculated about the possibility of metallic life-forms, but we’ve never discovered one. Star Trek: Voyager s6e8: One Small Step, Chakotay to Seven of Nine
I’m detecting another life-sign. Star Trek: Voyager s7e12: Lineage, Icheb to Seven of Nine & B’Elanna
Creating new life is a big job. Tom
Offspring can be disturbingly illogical. ibid. Tuvok to Tom
Genesis, simply put, is life from lifelessness. It was the intention to introduce the Genesis device into a preselected area of a lifeless space body. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock 1984 starring William Shatner & Leonard Nimoy & DeForest Kelley & James Doohan & George Takei & Walter Koenig & Nichelle Nicholls et al, director Leonard Nimoy, Kirk
Sequoias are the single largest life-form on Earth. Professor Iain Stewart, How to Grow a Planet I: Life from Light, BBC 2012
Where there is water and light, flowers have produced life. Professor Iain Stewart, How to Grow a Planet II: The Power of Flowers
On the earth, satellite of a star speeding through space, living things had arisen under the influence of conditions which were part of the planet's history; and as there had been a beginning of life upon it, so, under the influence of other conditions, there would be an end: man, no more significant than other forms of life, had come not as the climax of creation but as a physical reaction to the environment. W Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage
The world is indeed a living being endowed with a soul and intelligence ... A single visible living entity containing all other living entities, which by their nature are all related. Plato
Are you aware that humanity is just a blip? Not even a blip. Just a fraction of a fraction of what the universe has been and will become? Talk about perspective. I figure I can’t feel so entirely stupid about saying what I said because, first of all, it’s true. And second of all, there will be no remnant of me or my stupidity. No fossil or geographical shift that can document, really, even the most important historical human beings, let alone my paltry admissions. Meg Mullins, The Rug Merchant
Men will not be content to manufacture life: they will want to improve on it. J D Bernal, 1901-1971, physicist
What if nothing exists and we’re all in somebody’s dream? Or what’s worse, what if only that fat guy on the front row exists? Woody Allen
Live and let live. Early 17th century proverb