The Question That Keeps Me Awake At Night

Does life's early emergence mean life starts easily? Growing evidence shows that life got started very quickly (within ~100 million years) after conditions became suitable for life on Earth (~3.7 billion years ago). This is often taken as evidence that life starts easily, but is this really true? Prof Kipping explains why things aren't as simple as they seem.::More about this Video::► Nutman et al. 2016, "Rapid emergence of life shown by discovery of 3,700-million-year-old microbial structures": http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v537/n7621/full/nature19355.html► Allwood 2016, "Geology: Evidence of Life in Earth's Oldest Rocks": http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v537/n7621/full/nature19429.html► Outro music by Taylor Davis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl9kI1yQKZk::Playlists For Channel::Latest Cool Worlds Videos ► http://bit.ly/NewCoolWorldsCool Worlds Research ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsResearchGuest Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsGuestsQ&A Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsQAScience of TV/Film ► http://bit.ly/ScienceMovies::Follow us::SUBSCRIBE to the channel http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsSubscribeCool Worlds Lab http://coolworlds.astro.columbia.eduTwitter https://twitter.com/david_kippingInstagram https://www.instagram.com/cool.worldsTHANKS FOR WATCHING!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr Guillem Anglada and the Pale Red Dot project team announced today the discovery of a planet orbiting our nearest star, Proxima Centauri! Prof Kipping provides an update on the search as to whether "Proxima b" also is seen to transit its star our the Cool Worlds Lab MOST data + a discussion of habitability and how to reach this planet!::More about this Video::► MOST telescope homepage: http://most.astro.ubc.ca► Outro music by Taylor Davis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl9kI1yQKZk::Playlists For Channel::Latest Cool Worlds Videos ► http://bit.ly/NewCoolWorldsCool Worlds Research ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsResearchGuest Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsGuestsQ&A Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsQAScience of TV/Film ► http://bit.ly/ScienceMovies::Follow us::SUBSCRIBE to the channel http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsSubscribeCool Worlds Lab http://coolworlds.astro.columbia.eduTwitter https://twitter.com/david_kippingInstagram https://www.instagram.com/cool.worldsTHANKS FOR WATCHING!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) systems have been rapidly improving in recent years and Chat-GPT3 took the world by storm in Nov 2022. As smart at it may be, how does it compare to a typical undergraduate student sitting an introductory astronomy exam? Let's find out! Sponsored by Ground News, head to https://ground.news/coolworldsWritten and presented by Prof David Kipping, edited by Jorge Casas.→ Support our research program: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support→ Get Stash here! https://teespring.com/stores/cool-worlds-storeTHANK-YOU to our supporters D. Smith, M. Sloan, C. Bottaccini, D. Daughaday, A. Jones, S. Brownlee, N. Kildal, Z. Star, E. West, T. Zajonc, C. Wolfred, L. Skov, G. Benson, A. De Vaal, M. Elliott, B. Daniluk, S. Vystoropskyi, S. Lee, Z. Danielson, C. Fitzgerald, C. Souter, M. Gillette, T. Jeffcoat, J. Rockett, D. Murphree, S. Hannum, T. Donkin, K. Myers, A. Schoen, K. Dabrowski, J. Black, R. Ramezankhani, J. Armstrong, K. Weber, S. Marks, L. Robinson, S. Roulier, B. Smith, G. Canterbury, J. Cassese, J. Kruger, S. Way, P. Finch, S. Applegate, L. Watson, E. Zahnle, N. Gebben, J. Bergman, E. Dessoi, J. Alexander, C. Macdonald, M. Hedlund, P. Kaup, C. Hays, W. Evans, D. Bansal, J. Curtin, J. Sturm, RAND Corp., M. Donovan, N. Corwin, M. Mangione, K. Howard, L. Deacon, G. Metts, G. Genova, R. Provost, B. Sigurjonsson, G. Fullwood, B. Walford, J. Boyd, N. De Haan, J. Gillmer, R. Williams, E. Garland, A. Leishman & A. Phan Le.::Music::Music licensed by SoundStripe.com (SS) [shorturl.at/ptBHI], Artlist.io, via Creative Commons (CC) Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), or with permission from the artist.::Chapters::00:00 What is ChatGPT?02:53 Rise of the Machines05:07 Sponsorship06:27 Challenging ChatGPT07:58 Question 110:00 Question 511:15 Question 813:14 Question 1214:16 Question 1315:29 Question 1517:48 Question 2219:25 Question 2320:57 Question 2624:31 Final Score28:10 Outro & Credits#ChatGPT #ArtificialIntelligence #CoolWorlds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Use code coolworlds at https://incogni.com/coolworlds to get an exclusive 60% off an annual Incogni plan.The day has finally come! Today we share our results using JWST to look for exomoon around Kepler-167e... buckle in...Written & presented by David Kipping→ Support our research: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support→ Get merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/cool-worlds→ Check out our podcast: www.youtube.com/@CoolWorldsPodcastTHANK-YOU to D. Smith, C. Bottaccini, D. Daughaday, S. Brownlee, E. West, T. Zajonc, A. De Vaal, M. Elliott, B. Daniluk, S. Vystoropskyi, S. Lee, Z. Danielson, C. Fitzgerald, C. Souter, M. Gillette, J. Rockett, M. Sanford, T. Donkin, A. Schoen, K. Dabrowski, J. Armstrong, B. Smith, J. Bergman, C. Macdonald, M. Hedlund, N. Corwin, K. Howard, L. Deacon, G. Metts, R. Provost, G. Fullwood, N. De Haan, R. Williams, E. Garland, R. Lovely, D. Compos, F. Demopoulos, T. Edris, M. O'Brien, D. Lee, M. Czirr, I. Williams, B. Reese, A. Nimmerjahn, C. Seay, D. Johnson, L. Cunningham, M. Morrow, M. Campbell, B. Devermont, P. Borisoff, H. Schiff, J. Cos, C. Hansen, R. Chaffee, A. Ortiz, B. McMillan, B. Cartmell, J. Bryant, J. Obioma, M. Zeiler, S. Murray, S. Patterson, C. Kennedy, G. Le Saint, W. Ruf, A. Kochkov, B. Langley, P. Stevenson, T. Ford, A. Laroye, I. Venzor, R. Raszka, B. Gaalen, J. Alley, D. Aron, G. Thomsen, S. Shardool, A. Phan Le, N. Offor, A. Huch, J. Morrison, C. Fitzsimmons, W. Smith, A. Twyman, B. Burgess, B. Bueche, D. Hoffman, J. Murphy, J. Matters, R. Borbidge, A. Singh, S. Larter, M. Adler, B. Ross-Lee & C. Frederick.REFERENCES► Kipping et al., 2025, "A JWST Transit of a Jupiter Analog: II. A Search for Exomoons", AAS Journals, submitted: https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.15317► Cassese et al., 2025, "A JWST Transit of a Jupiter Analog I: Constraints on the Oblateness of Kepler-167e", AAS Journals, submitted: https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.02067MUSICLicensed by SoundStripe.com (SS) [shorturl.at/ptBHI], Artlist.io, via CC Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) or with permission from the artist. You can see all of our past music here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0Bu2UQlKDb0KaeliLZUOZn0:00 Sid Acharya - Stories from the Sky1:20 Hill - There Is but One Good7:53 Falls - Life in Binary13:00 Chris Zabriskie - tories About the World That Once Was14:29 Kyle Preston - An Ocean of Quiet Confession19:13 Chris Zabriskie - We Were Never Meant to Live Here20:38 Kyle Preston - Up The Oregon Coast23:15 Hill - Turn Away26:35 Hill - To Accept the Partings That Must ComeCHAPTERS0:00 Sixteen Years3:57 Big Guns8:57 First Impressions13:00 Incogni14:29 Too Good To Be True18:54 Detective Mode23:20 Aftermath29:02 Credits & Outro#JWST #Exomoons #CoolWorlds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Use code coolworlds at https://incogni.com/coolworlds to get an exclusive 60% off an annual Incogni plan.Nuclear weapons are the most terrifying invention of humanity. Could our genius to create such weapons also end them? Today we explore how neutrinos could be used to do just that, fizzling out nukes anywhere on Earth and with no defense.Written & presented by Prof. David Kipping, edited by Jorge Casas. Special thanks to Sam Gregson (youtube.com/@BadBoyofScience) for fact checking.→ Support our research: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support→ Get merch: https://teespring.com/stores/cool-worlds-store→ Check out our podcast: www.youtube.com/@CoolWorldsPodcastREFERENCES► The IceCube Collaboration 2023, "Observation of high-energy neutrinos from the Galactic plane", Science, 380, 1338: https://arxiv.org/abs/2307.04427► Sugawara et al. 2003, "Destruction of Nuclear Bombs Using Ultra-High Energy Neutrino Beam", arXiv:hep-ph/0305062: https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0305062► King 1999, "Potential Hazards from Neutrino Radiation at Muon Colliders", Proceedings of the 1999 IEEE Particle Accelerator Conference. 29 Mar - 2 Apr 1999, New York, New York. 18th IEEE Particle Accelerator Conference, p.318-320: https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/9908017► Silagadze 2008, "SETI and muon collider", Acta Physica Polonica B, 39, 2943: https://arxiv.org/abs/0803.0409THANK-YOU to D. Smith, M. Sloan, L. Sanborn, C. Bottaccini, D. Daughaday, A. Jones, S. Brownlee, N. Kildal, Z. Star, E. West, T. Zajonc, C. Wolfred, L. Skov, G. Benson, A. De Vaal, M. Elliott, B. Daniluk, S. Vystoropskyi, S. Lee, Z. Danielson, C. Fitzgerald, C. Souter, M. Gillette, T. Jeffcoat, J. Rockett, D. Murphree, T. Donkin, K. Myers, A. Schoen, K. Dabrowski, J. Black, R. Ramezankhani, J. Armstrong, K. Weber, S. Marks, L. Robinson, S. Roulier, B. Smith, J. Cassese, J. Kruger, S. Way, P. Finch, S. Applegate, L. Watson, E. Zahnle, N. Gebben, J. Bergman, E. Dessoi, C. Macdonald, M. Hedlund, P. Kaup, C. Hays, W. Evans, D. Bansal, J. Curtin, J. Sturm, RAND Corp., M. Donovan, N. Corwin, M. Mangione, K. Howard, L. Deacon, G. Metts, R. Provost, B. Sigurjonsson, G. Fullwood, B. Walford, J. Boyd, N. De Haan, J. Gillmer, R. Williams, E. Garland, A. Leishman, A. Phan Le, R. Lovely, M. Spoto, A. Steele, K. Yarbrough, A. Cornejo, D. Compos, F. Demopoulos, G. Bylinsky, J. Werner, B. Pearson, S. Thayer, T. Edris, B. Seeley, F. Blood, M. O'Brien, P. Muzyka, D. Lee, J. Sargent, M. Czirr, F. Krotzer, I. Williams, J. Sattler, J. Smallbon, B. Reese, J. Yoder, O. Shabtay, X. Yao, S. Saverys, M. Pittelli, A. Nimmerjahn & C. Seay.MUSIC0:00 Stephen Keech - Fable1:25 Brad Hill - It’s Always Darkest Before The Dawn3:54 Brad Hill - World of Wonder5:00 Chris Zabriskie - Music From Neptune Flux 047:46 Brad Hill - Arctic Warmth10:36 Brad Hill - Northern Boards13:25 Joachim Heinrich - Stjärna14:58 Brad Hill - FragileCHAPTERS0:00 Neutrinos3:39 Incogni5:08 Neutrino Factories9:11 Applications14:19 My Take16:17 Outro & Credits#nuclearwar #nuke #coolworlds Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sarah Pearson, a graduate student here at the Department of Astronomy, Columbia University, is launching a new YouTube channel called "Space with Sarah". Cool Worlds wanted to help promote real science on YouTube so here David chats with Sarah about her new channel and explains what it's all about.::More about this Video::► Here's where you can find "Space with Sarah": https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGozv81LbhEvkeYIW7ora8g► Here's the "Infinite Series" YouTube channel Sarah mentioned: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs4aHmggTfFrpkPcWSaBN9g► Cool Worlds Lab website: http://coolworlds.astro.columbia.edu► Columbia University Department of Astronomy: http://www.astro.columbia.edu► Outro music by Daft Punk "Harder, Better, Stronger, Faster": http://www.daftpunk.com and http://smarturl.it/DaftPunkiTunes::Playlists For Channel::Latest Cool Worlds Videos ► http://bit.ly/NewCoolWorldsCool Worlds Research ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsResearchGuest Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsGuestsQ&A Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsQAScience of TV/Film ► http://bit.ly/ScienceMovies::Follow us::SUBSCRIBE to the channel http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsSubscribeCool Worlds Lab http://coolworlds.astro.columbia.eduTwitter https://twitter.com/david_kippingInstagram https://www.instagram.com/cool.worldsTHANKS FOR WATCHING!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you look the mirror, the image you see is accurate, right? Sure you left and right side get flipped, but what about your size, color and proportions? When we think about mirrors relativistically, there are a few strange (but tiny) effects which mean your appearance in the mirror is distorted. Cool Worlds explains what's going on, why it happens and how big an effect we are talking about.::More about this Video::► The following paper gives a derivation of why the law of reflection breaks down, although it not model the reaction of the mirror in response to the photon: Aleksandar Gjurchinovski, "Reflection from a moving mirror - a simple derivation using the photon model of light": https://arxiv.org/abs/1207.0998► Physics Girl, "Why do mirrors flip horizontally (but not vertically)?": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBpxhfBlVLU► Vsauce, "What Color is a Mirror?": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yrZpTHBEss► Cool Worlds Lab website: http://coolworlds.astro.columbia.edu► Columbia University Department of Astronomy: http://www.astro.columbia.edu► Background music by MelodySheep "Secrets of the Stars": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuxFXHircaI::Playlists For Channel::Latest Cool Worlds Videos ► http://bit.ly/NewCoolWorldsCool Worlds Research ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsResearchGuest Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsGuestsQ&A Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsQAScience of TV/Film ► http://bit.ly/ScienceMovies::Follow us::SUBSCRIBE to the channel http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsSubscribeCool Worlds Lab http://coolworlds.astro.columbia.eduTwitter https://twitter.com/david_kippingInstagram https://www.instagram.com/cool.worldsTHANKS FOR WATCHING!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Use code coolworlds at https://incogni.com/coolworlds to get an exclusive 60% off an annual Incogni plan.New research from the Cool Worlds Lab leads a shocking conclusion - most stars might be incapable of developing intelligent life....Written & presented by Prof. David Kipping, edited by Jorge Casas. Thumbnail by Pablo Carlos Budassi https://pablocarlosbudassi.com→ Support our research: https://www.coolworldslab.com/support→ Get merch: https://crowdmade.com/collections/cool-worlds→ Check out our podcast: www.youtube.com/@CoolWorldsPodcastPAPER: https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.01215THANK-YOU to D. Smith, C. Bottaccini, D. Daughaday, S. Brownlee, E. West, T. Zajonc, A. De Vaal, M. Elliott, B. Daniluk, S. Vystoropskyi, S. Lee, Z. Danielson, C. Fitzgerald, C. Souter, M. Gillette, J. Rockett, M. Sanford, T. Donkin, A. Schoen, K. Dabrowski, J. Armstrong, B. Smith, J. Bergman, C. Macdonald, M. Hedlund, N. Corwin, K. Howard, G. Metts, R. Provost, G. Fullwood, N. De Haan, R. Williams, E. Garland, R. Lovely, D. Compos, F. Demopoulos, T. Edris, M. O'Brien, D. Lee, M. Czirr, I. Williams, B. Reese, A. Nimmerjahn, C. Seay, D. Johnson, L. Cunningham, M. Morrow, M. Campbell, B. Devermont, P. Borisoff, H. Schiff, J. Cos, C. Hansen, R. Chaffee, A. Ortiz, B. McMillan, B. Cartmell, J. Bryant, J. Obioma, M. Zeiler, S. Murray, S. Patterson, C. Kennedy, G. Le Saint, W. Ruf, A. Kochkov, B. Langley, P. Stevenson, T. Ford, A. Laroye, I. Venzor, R. Raszka, B. Gaalen, J. Alley, D. Aron, G. Thomsen, S. Shardool, A. Phan Le, N. Offor, A. Huch, J. Morrison, C. Fitzsimmons, W. Smith, A. Twyman, B. Burgess, B. Bueche, D. Hoffman, J. Murphy, J. Matters, R. Borbidge, A. Singh, S. Larter & M. Adler.MUSICLicensed by SoundStripe.com (SS) [shorturl.at/ptBHI], Artlist.io, via CC Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) or with permission from the artist.0:00 Ending: Agrippa - Mikko Tarmia2:41 Atlas - Waking Up3:20 Hill - World of Wonder5:11 Atlas - Waking Up7:35 Hill - Fragile Beings10:46 Hill - A Flickering Start13:50 Hill - A Thin Place18:51 Hill - Kingdom of the SkiesCHAPTERS0:00 Two Existential Puzzles3:20 Incogni5:11 Possible Explanations7:05 Bayesian Modeling9:50 Results12:05 No Luck13:52 Interpretation15:17 Lies & Statistics18:11 Final Thoughts20:09 Outro + Credits#CoolWorlds #AlienLife #Sun Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Until recently, it was thought that travel through a wormhole, like that seen in the 2014 Christopher Nolan film Interstellar, was forbidden by the laws of physics. Prof Daniel Jafferis and his team have recently had a breakthrough and found a way to make it physically allowed. Prof Jafferis dropped by the Cool Worlds Lab to tell us about this fascinating idea.::More about this Video::► Gao, Jafferis & Wall (2016), "Traversable Wormholes via a Double Trace Deformation": https://arxiv.org/abs/1608.05687► Outro music by Taylor Davis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl9kI1yQKZk::Playlists For Channel::Latest Cool Worlds Videos ► http://bit.ly/NewCoolWorldsCool Worlds Research ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsResearchGuest Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsGuestsQ&A Videos ► http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsQAScience of TV/Film ► http://bit.ly/ScienceMovies::Follow us::SUBSCRIBE to the channel http://bit.ly/CoolWorldsSubscribeCool Worlds Lab http://coolworlds.astro.columbia.eduTwitter https://twitter.com/david_kippingInstagram https://www.instagram.com/cool.worldsTHANKS FOR WATCHING!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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