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The galactic recipe for a living planet | Karin Öberg

Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more. Did you know that one of the most notorious poisons is also a key ingredient for life as we know it? Join space chemist Karin Öberg and learn how she scans the universe in search of this paradoxical chemical…

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Did you know that one of the most notorious poisons is also a key ingredient for life as we know it? Join space chemist Karin Öberg and learn how she scans the universe in search of this paradoxical chemical using ALMA, the world’s largest radio telescope, to detect hotbeds of molecular activity and the formation of life-sustaining planets.

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60 Comments

  1. THE MYSTIC POTATO

    May 5, 2020 at 4:39 pm

    normal people:*drinks water*
    me:*looks at water* * like really looks at it* * no seriously looks,scrutinizes it* hmmmmmm….

  2. GuitarZombie

    May 5, 2020 at 4:45 pm

    In a discussion of this topic, one must first decide how the universe began.
    If one approaches the subject in terms of a Creator, then the entire premise changes

  3. 許漳麟許漳麟

    May 5, 2020 at 4:51 pm

  4. bj0rn

    May 5, 2020 at 4:57 pm

    Her eyes seem to shine of genuine excitement!

  5. Kumaran Govindsamy

    May 5, 2020 at 4:57 pm

    But aren’t we presuming that life can only exist in the form we see it as. That life can only exist in an earth like planet?

    • Nikki Zabel

      May 5, 2020 at 7:06 pm

      We are not presuming it *only* exists in that form, but we have to start somewhere, otherwise the possibilities would be endless and we’d have no idea where to start looking!

  6. Cameron Walker

    May 5, 2020 at 4:57 pm

    Read Dr Behe’s work on irreducible complexity and you find out why it is very unlikely that there is life out there.

  7. Karan Saxena

    May 5, 2020 at 5:06 pm

    Amazing

  8. Hira Parmani

    May 5, 2020 at 5:18 pm

    Someone stop this freaking public speaking ad

    • Jera Nichols

      May 5, 2020 at 10:50 pm

      What?

  9. M4R0Zzz

    May 5, 2020 at 5:31 pm

    Rule #1: Don’t have any humans.

  10. Spot All

    May 5, 2020 at 5:35 pm

    Corona cases comparison

  11. Andrew H

    May 5, 2020 at 5:48 pm

    Thank you Karin Öberg. That’s the first time I’ve seen such a positive assessment. One billion planets spread randomly about our galaxy. I make that about one every 10-20 light years or so on average.

  12. Bearly Listening

    May 5, 2020 at 6:21 pm

    It’s just an assumption that planets form by accretion in discs. There is much more evidence that planets are formed inside stars and are ejected during recurring Nova events.

    • a

      May 5, 2020 at 8:07 pm

      Much more evidence?

    • Bearly Listening

      May 5, 2020 at 11:21 pm

      a Yes. No one has ever witnessed a planet formed by accretion of molten rocks slamming into each other. The SAFIRE project has created a star in a laboratory though and one of the byproducts is the consolidation of spherical metallic bodies in the outer shell of the plasma reactor. We’ve also witnessed novas where dust clouds are ejected and the star remains, which disproves the idea that stars only explode at the end of their lives. Why do you think planets are always orbiting stars and not just floating around randomly in space?

  13. Jan Stunnenberg

    May 5, 2020 at 6:23 pm

    Well, yes but the most important ingredient is missing here. CO2. In other words: If there is a planet with only water, nothing will happen unless there is abundance of C.

  14. INNOVATION & INITIATIVE Diy

    May 5, 2020 at 7:02 pm

    Why , hydrogen cyanite is important for life , what technique was use to detect cyanite emmition ?
    Who will tell this 😡

  15. nuitNo.6

    May 5, 2020 at 7:07 pm

    So many wannabe scientists these days…

    • a

      May 5, 2020 at 8:06 pm

      I hope you are not talking about Karin Öberg.

  16. INNOVATION & INITIATIVE Diy

    May 5, 2020 at 7:10 pm

    Maybe somewhere in the Universe very back in time some intelligent species would discussing same matter on their place , looking towards creation of our solar system and saying ‘ in future there’s possibility of life may be we aren’t alone “

  17. Anna - I love S*X : * TAP ON MY PHOTO

    May 5, 2020 at 7:43 pm

    👌 🤘 👍

  18. ResurrectionX

    May 5, 2020 at 9:34 pm

    Cosmos is hardware of supercomputer, watter its super conductor all running on God’s software creating byproducts like humans. That’s so damn exciting 🙏💜🤣

  19. KnightsLegion

    May 5, 2020 at 10:05 pm

    Watching this is Reminding me Just how bad the story got overtime.

  20. Zaid Thaier

    May 5, 2020 at 10:15 pm

    The most useful channel I’ve watched 👏

  21. Nigel Murillo

    May 5, 2020 at 10:54 pm

    Interesting. Almost as if we were intelligently and intentionally designed.

    • Cor Meum

      May 6, 2020 at 10:03 pm

      what? was that what you got from this presentation?

  22. Ken Choie

    May 5, 2020 at 11:10 pm

    Mmm…
    the universe is teeming with living things…
    Wonderful indeed!

  23. Steve Parker

    May 5, 2020 at 11:52 pm

    Ingredient 4. Magnetic field. Detecting that may be harder than detecting atmospheric molecule composition, though it could be inferred. Without a magnetic field, much of an atmosphere would be stripped away. Other lesser ingredients may be… have days (not tidally locked), or gravity strength, etc.

  24. Davi Senra

    May 6, 2020 at 12:08 am

    OI EU SOU ODAVI QUE VOCÊ QUERIA SERAMIGO

  25. Davi Senra

    May 6, 2020 at 12:08 am

    EU QUERO

  26. Sai Baba

    May 6, 2020 at 2:09 am

    Wonderful✨😍✨😍✨😍✨😍✨😍✨😍✨😍✨😍✨😍✨😍✨😍✨😍

  27. Sammy-Joe Samuels

    May 6, 2020 at 2:40 am

    This seems a filler tedtalk. Because there was no conclusion. All we know is that there is a recipe for an habitable planet and that there is a lot of out there. This didn’t have to be so long. This could have been done in 3 minutes to state the simple recipe.

  28. JONIE BOY BANGBANGTV

    May 6, 2020 at 3:28 am

    Hi Ted thanks for your comments to my videos now I subscribe you please support to my channel

  29. James T.

    May 6, 2020 at 4:20 am

    Too bad she’s already taken 😎

  30. adi canon

    May 6, 2020 at 5:24 am

    🙏 I am surprised to be able to subscribe to you from so many subscribers ,,
    🙏 Thank you, thank you thank you ,,

  31. Leonardo Batacandulo

    May 6, 2020 at 6:03 am

    im follow you i like your good idea.

  32. stockswithleah

    May 6, 2020 at 6:22 am

    Interesting topic! Loved the talk.

  33. nadeige chanou

    May 6, 2020 at 6:54 am

    yes i want friends

  34. Best beat and remixes

    May 6, 2020 at 8:42 am

    Ok I want to be friends

  35. miriam fashiongowns

    May 6, 2020 at 10:24 am

    O like science

  36. Halina Kusina

    May 6, 2020 at 11:17 am

    Amazing planet,I enjoy watching this video very interesting about planet.I get more knowledge about planet,thank you

  37. Anastasiya Bernackaya

    May 6, 2020 at 11:18 am

    Wow, I never thought of real possibility to have a lot of living planets out there. In my mind, life was a rare and pretty much random thing to happen, but this woman gave me a lot to think about.
    Thank you for this talk.

    • Don Hyon

      May 8, 2020 at 7:11 pm

      How many of these living planets have their inhabitants evolve beyond that of a colony of unspecialised cells?

      A slimeball planet is just as interesting to me as a dead planet. Microbes are everywhere on the surface of Earth but they are very boring.

    • Anastasiya Bernackaya

      May 8, 2020 at 9:32 pm

      @Don Hyon Life evolved from the bacteries themselves, so at least having them is a gift, not a given, even if you think they are boring. The whole point is to find any life, that would mean we are not the only organics here.

  38. Chris Davies

    May 6, 2020 at 12:26 pm

    Latest numbers show ~400 Billion stars in the Milky Way. Not 100. That is a very old number indeed.

  39. Rahul Sharma

    May 6, 2020 at 12:32 pm

    विश्व एक बड़ी कल्पना है

  40. Reality Aielumoh

    May 6, 2020 at 1:13 pm

  41. Joe O Sullivan

    May 6, 2020 at 2:08 pm

    Only in science can you sometimes be off by 100 billion, or 300 billion, and nobody really cares.

  42. Fatimah mohammed

    May 6, 2020 at 2:16 pm

  43. jcdiedericks

    May 6, 2020 at 3:07 pm

    What about having enough gas giants in the planet’s solar system to protect the planet against regular asteroid impacts, allowing time for life to develop? What about the planet’s solar system’s position in the galaxy, as outer solar systems are less turbulent (fewer asteroids, fewer supernova gamma-rays, etc)? What about the condition of the planet’s magnetosphere/if the planet has an active dynamo, won’t solar radiation destroy life without it? I think the recipe for life might require more ingredients than just being in the Goldilocks Zone, earth-like geography, and the right chemicals. No expert, just wondering if she could have included these as possible requirements for life in her presentation.

  44. Daniel Louise Ricaro

    May 6, 2020 at 3:53 pm

    Informative talk indeed! Reminds me also of a book Lucky Planet by David Waltham. 👍

  45. Daniel McArdle

    May 6, 2020 at 9:10 pm

    Why does the speaker assume that finding life on other planets is “good news”? I can imagine a scenario when we locate and contact them, and then they come and kill us all. Read Douglas Adams to fully get this idea. It seems far more likely than the ‘friendly hypothesis’ to me, looking at current and past species here on planet Earth!

    • Dustin Nelson

      May 10, 2020 at 8:08 pm

      “life” doesn’t necessarily mean “intelligent life.” And it definitely doesn’t mean intelligent life capable of traveling hundreds or thousands of lightyears to come annihilate us. That’s literal science fiction. No one is hypothesizing that’s the case. She’s talking about microscopic life and plant and animal life. There is no reason to assume intelligent life capable of advanced space travel is at all common or even exists at all.

  46. Chika

    May 7, 2020 at 2:58 am

    I wonder why she shed light on hydrogen cyanide.

  47. Bison Bolzelow

    May 7, 2020 at 2:10 pm

    I wonder why she always says, such a planet must have liquid water on it for supporting life. Why aren’t they at least considering the possibility of life emerging from other systems?

    For example a planet, that is a bit colder and has big amounts of liquid ammonia on it? It has similar traits compared to water and with the right other molecules, i guess the organic chemistry on such a planet could also be pretty interesting.
    Does anyone know if there’s a reason why this doesn’t need to be considered?

  48. TRENDY HACKS

    May 8, 2020 at 7:21 am

    Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.

  49. FACT

    May 10, 2020 at 7:54 am

    👍👍

  50. Meme Student

    May 10, 2020 at 8:43 pm

    Parents: why are you looking at your glass of water like that?
    Me:

  51. japanis123

    May 10, 2020 at 9:38 pm

    Good talk. but 2 minutes would have been enough to say what she had to say

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