What is Life? (Evolution Series Part I)

What is Life? (Evolution Series Part I)

Did you know cyanobacteria and sponges were the start of oxygen and life on earth?

Read on / print out if you're a teacher: 

My Website: https://www.awakeningconsciousness.community/healing-the-world/what-is-life-evolution-series-part-i

or 

Medium: https://medium.com/new-earth-consciousness/what-is-life-evolution-series-part-i-eaece92c374a

You can also read this series in my book on Amazon, New Social-Ecological-Economic Theory for The World : Saving the Earth from Poverty and Pollution, and Preparing for the Rise of Artificial Intelligence: https://a.co/d/0bQatzqw 

Ashley Heacock, 2026

Transcript

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Okay, hello all. Welcome to the Awakening Consciousness Podcast with Ashley Heacock. So this episode is a three-part episode about what is life. Um Evolution Series Part One. So a lot of people are confused about how old the earth is, how old animals are, how Homo sapiens evolved, and I believe it's important to understand in order to understand climate change and the sacredness of this earth. So I'm going to read through my articles. You can read them on Medium or my website, awakeningconsciousness.community. Isn't that fascinating? So the earth used to not have oxygen. Wow. Alright. So a friend and I a while back had a conversation about what is life. And recently I was thinking about how parrots can speak like humans, and chimpanzees and bonobos can communicate well with humans and have immense learning abilities. I then began researching our genetic similarities. I knew we were like 99% similar to apes, DNA RNA-wise, but I had no idea that our genes are also similar to plant species. Perhaps you did. So organic and inorganic, as they are called in research literature, are different. No, humans do not share genes with metal. Metals are inorganic elements and lack the genetic material necessary to possess genes, while humans and all living organisms, including plants, have DNA which contain genes that code for specific traits, and that's from Google AI. And remember that the earth created metals and gemstones and all of these things billions of years ago, they're not going to be able to be created again. So the precious resources that we need to account for. And I'm also concerned about the Earth's gravitational pull and metals, the metals that we take out, could affect gravity, could affect the moon, menstrual cycles. This is something that should be studied. So, okay, let's move on. So did you know that we share 60% DNA with bananas? Isn't that interesting? With bananas, you may already know, but there is a Google AI function where you just put in a question and it populates an answer from all over the web. So this is what I learned from my searching about gene similarity to Homo sapiens and animal species. Alright, so gene similarity. So we share 99% of the same genes with bonobos, 98.9% with chimpanzees, 98% with pigs, 90% with cats, 85% with mice, 80% with whales, 80% with cows, 75% with chickens. This is really interesting. 70% with sea sponges, 60 to 75% with flies, 60% with bananas, and 20 to 60% with all plant species. So humans and plants share a significant amount of genetic similarity with humans, sharing 20 to 60% of the genes with plants, depending on the species. This is because all living things share DNA, which is made up of the same four bases, A, T, C, and G, that code for amino acids which form proteins, and that's from Google AI. So you might also want to share this with your classes. If you're a teacher, an educator, this might be interesting material for them as well. So I've been researching the evolution of life and found some really interesting research from the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian. Did you know that the earth used to not have oxygen? And that sponges were the beginning of our life on Earth with oxygen. Sponges. So the Smithsonian says with an environment devoid of oxygen and high in methane, for much of its history Earth would not have been a welcoming place for animals. The earliest life forms we know of were microscopic organisms, microbes, that left signals of the presence of rocks about 3.7 billion years old. Okay, so 3.7 billion. That's nine zeros. That's a really long time ago. So the signals consisted of a type of carbon molecule that is produced by living things. When cyanobacteria evolved at least 2.4 billion years ago, they set the stage for a remarkable transformation. So first there were sponges, and then there were cyanobacteria. They became Earth's first photosynthesizers, making food using water and the sun's energy and releasing oxygen as a result. This catalyzed a sudden dramatic rise in oxygen, making the environment less hospitable for other microbes that could not tolerate oxygen. So I'm going to diverge from this article for a while to address an important point to make for the future of life on Earth in the ocean. Phytoplankton may be an answer to cleaning up our ocean's mess that Homo sapiens created by putting trash and petroleum and all sorts of other ugly stuff from the rain cycle, fertilizers, pesticides, hormones, antibiotics, coal, etc. I quote from EcoBusiness Ocean acidification refers to the drop in pH levels in seawater, which were on average 8.2 in the pre-industrial era. Since then it has declined by 0.1 units. While this appears minute, because the pH scale is logarithmic, this actually represents a 30% increase in acidity. That's insane. Mid-range projections for 2100 is that the ocean pH could decline by 0.3 to 0.4 units. That would be devastating for ocean biodiversity. As a comparison, a drop in blood pH in humans by 0.2 to 0.3 units could cause seizures, comas, and even death. So this is a really important issue. If anybody wants to take on this project, that would be wonderful. It's a really serious issue. So while researching phytoplankton online, they are the major source of oxygen and reduction of carbon. They could be lifesavers of many animals and Homo sapiens alike. So phytoplankton, to reduce acidity and increase oxygen and decrease carbon. I go to Google AI. So oxygen production. They are responsible for producing as much as half the Earth's atmospheric oxygen, making them vital for all life that breathes. Carbon cycle. Through photosynthesis, phytoplankton absorb large amounts of carbon from the atmosphere and are a key component of the ocean's biological hump, which stores carbon in the deep ocean. Human dependence. A healthy phytoplankton population is critical for global fisheries, which provides a major food source for humans. Ecosystem health. A decline in phytoplankton can have cascading negative effects on the entire marine ecosystem, from the smallest creatures to the largest, and can have an impact on global climate stability. So that's from Google AI. So yes, phytoplankton can help with ocean acidity through photosynthesis by consuming carbon dioxide, which lowers acidity in surface waters. However, the impact is complex because some species, like wow, I can't really pronounce this very well, cocolithophores can temporarily increase acidity in localized areas by using carbonate ions to build shells. So we need scientists who know what they're doing to help with this, right? As ocean acidification continues, the composition of phytoplankton communities is expected to change, which could have significant consequences for the marine food web and the ocean's ability to absorb carbon dioxide. So this is really serious if scientists can start studying phytoplankton and we could start increasing phytoplankton in the ocean, that might have a huge effect on the animals that live there. That would be really, really lovely. And on my my medium and my website profiles, I have photos of phytoplankton. And then I have another photo of differentials that came from the phytoplankton. So we keep evolving, right? So the phytoplankton evolved into something different, and then those became something different even more, even more diverse, even more nuanced, more variations, eventually leading to fish, mammals, monkeys, apes, and Homo sapiens. So that's the beginning of life. Isn't that fascinating? Do people know that? Is this in our history books? Do we teach this to children? Um that might be helpful to understand that we come from the beginning of sponges and phytoplankton from billions of years ago. And now we're treating the earth like it doesn't even matter. We're just polluting it with uh coal, petroleum, with fertilizers, pesticides and food, uh steroids, antibiotics, um hormones and animals, it's getting into the water. Uh would you treat your own house like that? No. You would treat your house, you would want it beautiful, you would want to keep it clean, uh, you you created that house, you built that house. Uh it's the same with the earth. The earth built this beautiful ecosystem for us, for the animals, for for all of us to thrive, and now we're trashing it. You wouldn't trash a house, something that you built, that you loved, that you you spent a lot of time on, uh, and thought and care and and and put beauty into it and love into it, you wouldn't destroy it. So why are we doing that to the earth? Right? Okay, so now back to the article by the National Museum of National History at the Smithsonian. Other innovations were occurring at this time. Um while they can process lots of chemicals, microbes did not have the specialized cells that are needed for complex bodies. Animal bodies have various cells: skin, blood, bone, which contain organelles, each doing a distinct job. They do, they cooperate together. And that's what we're supposed to do as a human species as well, cooperate. So microbes are just single cells with no organelles and no nuclei to protect the DNA. So something revolutionary happened as microbes began living inside other microbes, functioning as organelles for them. Mitochondria, the organelles that produce food into energy, evolved from these mutually beneficial relationships. Also, for the first time, DNA became packaged in nuclei. The new complex cells called eukaryotic cells boasted specialized parts playing specialized roles that supported the whole cell. So cells began living together probably because certain benefits could be obtained. Groups of cells might be able to feed more efficiently or gain protection from simply being bigger, living collectively. Cells began to support the needs of the group by each cell doing a specific job. Some cells were tasked with making junctions to hold the group together, while other cells made digestive enzymes that could break down food. So then I have another photo on my medium and website profiles that show this really complex eukaryotic cell that was formed. So that's kind of the next step of our evolution. These clusters of specialized cooperating cells eventually became the first animals, which DNA evidence suggests evolved around 800 million years ago. So that's six zeros. So sponges were the first earliest animals, but chemical compounds from sponges are preserved in rocks as old as 700 million years. Molecular evidence points to sponges developing even earlier, probably billions, right? So I have another photo online you can look at about some of these earliest animals that were formed. So oxygen levels in the ocean were still low compared to today, but sponges are able to tolerate conditions of low oxygen. Although, like other animals, they are required to require oxygen to metabolize. They don't need much because they are not very active. They feed while sitting still by extracting food particles from water that is pumped through the bodies by specialized cells. The simple body plan of a sponge consists of layers of cells around water-filled cavities, supported by hard skeletal parts. The evolution of ever more complex and diverse body plans would eventually lead to distinct groups of animals. The assembly instructions for an animal's body plan are in its genes. Some genes act like an orchestra, like orchestra conductors, controlling the expression of many other genes at specific places and times to correctly assemble the components. While they were not played out immediately, there is evidence that parts of instructions for complex bodies were present even in the earliest animals. Thanks to the hard skeletons, sponges became the first reef builders on Earth. Scientists like Spinsonians, Dr. Klaus Rutzler, I'm not sure if I pronounced that right, are working to understand the evolution of the thousands of sponge species living on Earth today. Okay, so then, this is the last part, so then we go to the Cambrian period. 541 to 485 million years ago, witnessed a wild explosion of new life forms. Although with new burying lifestyles came hard body parts like shells and spines. Hard body parts allowed animals to more drastically engineer their environments, such as digging burrows. So a shift occurred towards more active animals with defined heads and tails for directional movement to chase prey. Active feeding by well-armoured animals like tribulates may have further disrupted the seafloor that the soft, okay, I don't know how to pronounce this well, Ideakaran creatures had lived on. So that's when the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian. So the Cambrian period life forms are different than the Eukaryotic, right? So that's that's the evolution that happened at that time period. So I have another picture online that you can see of the Cambrian life forms. And this is the the first series of this evolutionary podcast. And so I hope you find this as fascinating as me. Again, this is the this is the Awakening Consciousness podcast by Ashley Heacog. And please feel free to leave comments, questions, insights. Um I would love to hear from you.