Thor. Loki. Heimdall. They're not just Norse gods or Marvel characters. They're also the names of various Asgard archaea. These microscopic organisms are found all over the world, from marine sediment to mud volcanoes to hydrothermal vents. A growing body of research suggests we owe them an evolutionary debt. This episode, Emily and guest host Jon Hamilton explore the wild world of archaea: Where are they from? What do they do? And what can they tell us about the origins of life on earth? Interested in more stories about life's origins? Email us at [email protected]. We'd love to hear from you!Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
Full Episode
This is Ira Glass, the host of This American Life. So much is changing so rapidly right now with President Trump in office. It feels good to pause for a moment sometimes and look around at what's what.
To try and do that, we've been finding these incredible stories about right now that are funny and have feeling and you get to see people everywhere making sense of this new America that we find ourselves in. This American Life, wherever you get your podcasts.
You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Hey, short wavers, it's Emily Kwong here.
And John Hamilton.
With a story that kind of picks up where Regina and I left off in November. So, John, do you remember the episode we did about hydrothermal vents and the origins of life?
Oh, how could I forget? The two of you were getting at this idea that maybe the building blocks for life, you know, nucleotides, amino acids, were created around those super hot vents on the ocean floor.
DNA and RNA, for example, are extremely vulnerable to, like, UV light. So maybe they first formed deep in the ocean where they'd be protected from those rays. That's amazing.
I mean, sounds plausible to me.
Right?
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