From Cells to Us…How!? | The Story of Life and Biology

7 Episodes

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Ep 7 - The Great Oxygenation Event

2026-03-0941:58

Oxygen — the thing keeping you alive right now — was once a toxic waste product that triggered the first mass extinction in Earth's history. In this episode we're talking about the Great Oxygenation Event: the day cyanobacteria accidentally poisoned the planet, possibly froze it solid, and somehow set the stage for everything that came after. Including you. We cover why early Earth had basically no oxygen, how a tiny bacterium changed everything by figuring out photosynthesis, why oxygen was ...

Ep 6 - The Great Split

2026-02-2345:57

LUCA had kids. And like all kids, they went their separate ways. Today we're covering the first great split in the tree of life - when LUCA's descendants branched into Bacteria and Archaea. Same genetic code, completely different everything else. Plus: viruses (where have THEY been this whole time?), horizontal gene transfer (strangers sharing genes), and why bacteria sharing resistance genes is now one of the biggest threats to modern medicine. Also, I make a lot of puns. You've been w...

Ep 5 - The Genetic Code - Part 2

2026-02-0935:15

Life learned to speak in Episode 4. Now it’s time to speak clearly. Tina gets her anticodon. Rick becomes Darth Vader. The wobble gives evolution room to experiment. And LUCA emerges - the ancestor of all life on Earth.

Ep 4 - The Genetic Code - Part 1

2026-01-2642:29

How did life go from random chaos to organized machinery? Three-letter words. In this episode, we meet the RNA family - Mary, Rick, and Tina - and discover how they invented the genetic code. The same code you, me, E. coli, and blue whales all still use today.

Ep 1 - The First Cell

2026-01-1234:37

How did life begin from non-life? In this episode of From Cells to Us… How!?, we go all the way back—before biology had a name—to explore how chemistry on early Earth may have produced the first living systems. We talk lightning, oceans, RNA, and the messy, improbable process that eventually led to life. No textbooks. No prerequisites. Just curiosity.

Ep 2 - The Workers Arrive

2026-01-1245:57

RNA can store information—but it can’t do everything alone. In this episode, we explore how amino acids entered the picture and why life needed molecular “workers” to survive and evolve.

Ep 3 - DNA

2026-01-1234:29

RNA was first—but DNA changed everything. This episode explores why life switched to DNA for long-term storage and how that shift made complexity possible.

#box-pro-ellipsis-17741328774773{-webkit-line-clamp:2;}From Cells to Us…How!? | The Story of Life and Biology

From Cells to Us…How!? | The Story of Life and Biology