A Brief History of Life, Part 1: The Archean and the Proterozoic (Breve storia della Vita sulla Terra - Archeano e Proterozoico) - via @SciShow

Sources:
http://www.snowballearth.org/when.html
https://www.coursera.org/learn/astrob...
http://www.astrobio.net/news-exclusiv...
http://exploringorigins.org/timeline....
http://www.fossils-facts-and-finds.co...
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/precambr...
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/bacteria...
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/precambr...
http://www.britannica.com/science/Arc...
http://paleobiology.si.edu/geotime/ma...
http://www.pnas.org/content/112/47/14...
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10...
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/precambr...
http://paleobiology.si.edu/geotime/ma...
http://www.britannica.com/science/Pro...
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/protista...
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/...
http://www.pnas.org/content/102/32/11...
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK...
http://ww2.chemistry.gatech.edu/~lw26...
http://www.fossilmuseum.net/Evolution...
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...
http://www.britannica.com/science/con...
https://books.google.com/books?id=6Qu...
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/1...

Why Did We Stop Going To The Moon? (Perchè abbiamo interrotto le missioni sulla Luna?) - via @SeekerDaily

Learn More:
Washington Post:
NASA's piece of the budget has declined by half since the Pluto mission was broached
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/t...

Scientific American: Down to Earth: The Apollo Moon Missions That Never Were
http://www.scientificamerican.com/art... \

Slate: Another Year, Another Set of Bizarre Cuts to NASA's Budget
http://www.slate.com/blogs/bad_astron...

New York Times: Astronauts Land on Plain; Collect Rocks, Plant Flag
https://partners.nytimes.com/library/...

What is life? Are viruses alive? (Si possono definire i virus "vivi"?) - via @_ThisPlace_

via @_ThisPlace

What is it that makes things alive?
What if we made robots that could sustain themselves? What if they could mine metals or recycle old robots, reprogram and remake themselves? There's nothing there we would traditional call alive, but they would have at least have the essence of this perpetual rube Goldberg machine. Would that be called life? I don't think many people would. Those are just self replicating robots. Those are fucked up robots that need to learn there place under humanity's boot.
It might be another sort of replicating never ending Rube Goldberg machine, but maybe life is more specific to the shape that we apply the name to (with cells and DNA and all).
But then what about life on other planets?
Sometimes people say that we shouldn't assume all other forms of life are like ours because it's close minded. What if it's not just DNA and the cell. What if it's not even ....a code, and some bunch of stuff that reproduces the code in a way that we understand it.
What if it's something ambiguous that we can't even begin to comprehend or recognize?
but .....
What?
I think the uncertainty of what alien life might be like, maybe it's a side effect of being able to recognize and describe life here really easily, while right beside that having a difficult time defining it. There isn't really an unequivocal definition yet. So people can imagine some being of pure energy or whatever that we would recognize as life, without first imagining the fundamental process behind it and why we call it life.

Original "What is Life?" Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZHD9E...