Thread by @XiXiDu

The Fermi paradox gets worse and worse.

https://twitter.com/robinhanson/status/1377989289968082947

Scientists have observed a single-cell alga evolve in real time into a multicellular organism. The transition took around a year and was caused by the introduction of a predator into the environment. nature.com/articles/s4159…

The ctenophore’s brain suggests that, if evolution began again, intelligence would re-emerge

“invented neurons, muscles & other specialised tissues, independently from the rest of the animal kingdom, using different starting materials" aeon.co/essays/what-th…

UV Surface Radiation Should Not Limit the Habitability of Active M Star Systems news.cornell.edu/stories/2019/0…

Birds show that something functionally similar to the mammalian cortex independently evolved twice aiimpacts.org/primates-vs-bi…

Predator-Prey Behaviour in Self-Replicating Interstellar Probes -- "...we find this solution to Fermi's Paradox does not reduce the probe population sufficiently to be viable." arxiv.org/abs/1903.00770

A study published in Nature Chemistry shows that nearly all the ingredients for a potential forerunner to cellular metabolism could have formed easily from just two simple compounds reacting in water. quantamagazine.org/new-clues-to-c…

Scientists have created 2-deoxyribose (the “D” in DNA) by bombarding simulated meteor ice with UV radiation. This adds to the already extensive list of complex biological compounds that can be formed through astrophysical processes. (Origin of life) nature.com/articles/s4146…

"If some of the new evidence truly represents impressions of primeval life, then our ancestors may be much older than we thought. Life might have arisen the moment the planet was amenable to it — the moment it cooled enough to hold liquid water." getpocket.com/explore/item/f…

"Half-a-billion-year-old creature challenges theory that animals burst onto the scene in an abrupt event known as the Cambrian explosion." nature.com/articles/d4158…