Some scientists now believe the chances of life emerging on Earth by itself are too remote. In a very honest, refreshing, (but complex), scientific paper, Robert Endres of the Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College, London in December 2025, explored the principles of how the first cells might have begun on Earth. By carefully exploring all available research, he concludes that it is improbable that life could have begun by itself, in the timeframe available. 

In other news from March this year, evidence from Japanese scientists strongly indicates that the building blocks of life on Earth began, or at least partly began, from asteroids. Samples taken from the asteroid Ryugu revealed all five of the primary nucleobases – the building blocks of DNA, RNA and life on Earth. This is not the first time evidence like this has been found and it has also been shown these building blocks can survive entry into the earth’s atmosphere. 

This is remarkable, and suggests that the building blocks of life formed, not on Earth, but in space and then spread around the universe, like seeds in the wind. We now know of over 6,000 exoplanets orbiting stars just in a small section of our Milky Way galaxy. When extrapolated to the universe as a whole, there must be millions of potential planets that could have been subject to the same life bringing asteroids. When you add this to the fact that much of the earth’s water came from comets, you get some profound implications. 

As I wrote in another post, an exoplanet named K2-18b, has been calculated to have a 97% certainty of alien life. If confirmed, this would almost certainly mean that life is ubiquitous throughout the universe.

Rather than being an empty, lifeless, black void, the universe is pulsing with the building blocks of life that flow along filaments, between galaxies, like oxygen being carried on the blood. It’s such a startling fact that some believe the whole universe is conscious. Personally, I don’t think there is enough evidence for that. Certainly, there appears to be organisation, agency and functionality, things you wouldn’t expect from a lifeless organism, but as yet, other vital signs of life haven’t been found. The universe does not have cells for example, it doesn’t have a means of reproduction, (although some physicists believe black holes could spawn new universes), and it doesn’t exhibit homeostasis, so technically it isn’t alive. It does however, display growth, evolution and self-organisation, so some vital signs are present. Besides which, the very definitions of life are sketchy. Viruses aren’t technically alive, but try telling my sinuses that when I’m full of man flu. Some newly discovered planktons have a stripped-back, parasitic existence that force biologists to rethink what being alive means. 

In conclusion, the fact that our planet exists, the fact that it is teeming with conscious life, is miraculous enough. We don’t need to go looking to the stars for more evidence of its profundity, and yet we are presented with it just the same. It isn’t only our planet that is wrought with the building blocks of life, but rather the entire universe. While we can’t say for certain that the universe itself is alive, we can say that it is full of life – or at least the potential for it. I don’t know about you, but I do not believe we are exceptional and that implies we are not alone in the universe. I just hope Scotty has got those warp drives working again because I think we’re going to need them.

Sources

• The unreasonable likelihood of being. Origin of life, terraforming, and AI Robert G. Endres Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College, London
• Ryugu has all of the main ingredients for life. New Scientist magazine 16th March 2026 
• The science times, Can Black Holes Spawn New Universes? Theories Linking Collapse to Cosmic Birth, Glanze Patrick Published: Jan 15 2026
• Strange cellular entity challenges the definition of life itself, Science Alert, June 2025
• Is the Universe conscious? A panpsychism Q&A with philosopher Philip Goff, Big Think 2023