In Our Time: Science

The Origins of Life


Listen Later

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the emergence of the world’s first organic matter nearly four billion years ago. Scientists have named 1.5 million species of living organism on the land, in the skies and in the oceans of planet Earth and a new one is classified every day.  Estimates of how many species remain to be discovered vary wildly, but science accepts one categorical point – all living matter on our planet, from the nematode to the elephant, from the bacterium to the blue whale, is derived from a single common ancestor. What was that ancestor?  Did it really emerge from a ‘primordial soup’? And what, in the explanation of evolutionary science, provided the catalyst to start turning the cycle of life?With Richard Dawkins, Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University; Richard Corfield, Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space and Astronomical Research at the Open University; Linda Partridge, Biology and Biotechnology Research Council Professor at University College London.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

In Our Time: ScienceBy BBC Radio 4

  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6

4.6

690 ratings


More shows like In Our Time: Science

View all
In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,423 Listeners

The Documentary Podcast by BBC World Service

The Documentary Podcast

1,800 Listeners

Global News Podcast by BBC World Service

Global News Podcast

7,646 Listeners

History Extra podcast by Immediate Media

History Extra podcast

3,185 Listeners

Thinking Allowed by BBC Radio 4

Thinking Allowed

308 Listeners

Great Lives by BBC Radio 4

Great Lives

477 Listeners

6 Minute English by BBC Radio

6 Minute English

1,751 Listeners

Learning English Conversations by BBC Radio

Learning English Conversations

1,081 Listeners

Science In Action by BBC World Service

Science In Action

342 Listeners

Discovery by BBC World Service

Discovery

966 Listeners

The Infinite Monkey Cage by BBC Radio 4

The Infinite Monkey Cage

2,086 Listeners

Newshour by BBC World Service

Newshour

1,039 Listeners

In Our Time: History by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: History

1,869 Listeners

In Our Time: Culture by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Culture

599 Listeners

In Our Time: Religion by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Religion

284 Listeners

In Our Time: Philosophy by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Philosophy

855 Listeners

The Life Scientific by BBC Radio 4

The Life Scientific

237 Listeners

Unexpected Elements by BBC World Service

Unexpected Elements

355 Listeners

BBC Inside Science by BBC Radio 4

BBC Inside Science

398 Listeners

13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle by BBC World Service

13 Minutes Presents: The Space Shuttle

4,194 Listeners

Americast by BBC News

Americast

701 Listeners

You're Dead to Me by BBC Radio 4

You're Dead to Me

2,960 Listeners

The Supermassive Podcast by The Royal Astronomical Society

The Supermassive Podcast

283 Listeners