Tag: evidence

  • Explosions are not Creation

    Explosions are not Creation

    A new essay about an impact shower on the terrestrial planets that happened almost concomitant to the beginning of multicellular life on the Earth’s surface, about 800.000.000 years ago, comes at a very convenient time. 

    Recently, debris from a SpaceX rocket collided with the Moon’s surface, creating a new crater and blasting material into space. The incident has renewed concerns about the growing problem of space debris (as if space exploration didn’t already have enough challenges).

    What is interesting about all these recent “scientific” happenings is the zeitgeist that (after many years) is still alive and kicking – that violent explosions and collisions can be for the best, and in some cases even necessary as Life triggers. 

    Pop-science tropes often cling to the idea that explosions, collisions, and bombs do not necessarily signify destruction, chaos, sadness, or loss. Ironically, the underlying message is that these destructive events can somehow be restorative (??) and signify new beginnings. While this trope discourse is becoming increasingly tiresome—likely due to the saturation of cinematic storytelling—the barrier to empirical evidence still remains.

    To illustrate, around 66.000.000 years ago, the South Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea were already in existence. The rearrangement of the continents (along with the tectonic plates) triggered geological activity that triggered atmospheric changes, which, together with the dramatic lowering of sea levels, led to a powerful extinction event. Geological data also shows that a massive astronomical body struck Earth’s surface around the same time, causing acid rain, freezing temperatures, and releasing particles in the atmosphere that would block sunlight. 

    According to pop science, the astronomical body collision was, alone, responsible for the extinction of the Dinosaurs and triggered the rise of mammals; therefore, the bombing that came from space was, all in all, good, because without it, we, human mammals, could not exist.  

    However, recent studies state that the aftermath of the massive astronomical body collision was likely fleeting – freezing temperatures reversed after 3 years, acid rain probably dissipated after 10 years, and the dust blocking the sunlight lasted up to a year. In addition, the fossil data about this particular extinction event does not indicate any pattern that this event was any different from the previous ones in terms of time span (thousands to millions of years) and number of species (proportionally). Also, according to empirical evidence, mammals started to inhabit the Earth’s surface millions of years before.

    Therefore, a meteor did hit the Earth’s surface around 66.000.000 years ago, but it is unlikely that it was alone responsible for the extinction event that included the dinosaurs – or the rise of mammals.

    It should go without saying, yet it bears repeating – It is very important to stop glorifying explosions and big destructive events as the catalyst of anything. Explosions shatter existing systems; they do not construct new ones. 

    Science advances when empirical evidence leads the story – and, so far, the evidence shows that life builds itself through resilience and gradual adaptation, not sudden shocks, not raw destruction.

    As for 2026, perhaps humans don’t need cataclysmic drama to find wonder in their origins anymore. The story evidence-based science actually tells is infinitely richer – Life isn’t sparked by violent shocks, but woven through quiet patience, intricate balance, and amazing endurance. The slow, persistent magic is what humans might be now ready to embrace.

    All references for this article that are not linked to the content can be found here.


  • What Pangea Actually Meant for Life

    What Pangea Actually Meant for Life

    Due to the proportions of planet Earth, all features at its surface are first and foremost determined by the gravitational interactions with other astronomical bodies (like the Sun and the Moon).

    In the case of the continents, such interactions trigger the mantle materials to rise up and sink down, giving them their arrangement and size. 

    The current mass and configuration of the continents started to take their present form around 700.000.000 years ago when the continents were spread from the equator to the south pole, to subsequently start to gather closer to the south pole.

    Still, due to mantle interactions, by 350.000.000 years ago, the continents gathered from the south to the north pole, shaping a massive, monumental, and concentrated landmass – Pangea. 

    At Pangea, Earth’s surface consisted of one portion of dry solid continental crust from the south pole to the north pole, entirely surrounded by one massive ocean. 

    Pangea had a perpetually wet and warm zone around the equator (delta environments), contrasting with drier zones closer to the poles. There was no ice at the poles during this time on Earth’s surface, with warm temperatures spreading throughout the whole continental land. 

    The process of connecting the landmasses (rising and sinking of mantle materials coming together with a lot of outgassing) changed the levels of oxygen dramatically in the Earth’s surface atmosphere, which peaked around 300.000.000 years ago, with oxygen being 35% of the atmospheric composition (to contextualize, it is 22% today) and dramatically declining to 15% within only 10.000.000 years. 

    The atmospheric changes and the increasingly overall arid inland climates, together with the lack of oceanic barriers at Pangea, allowed organisms to get wildly geographically distributed in all continental landmasses, directly causing the rise of new kinds of multicellular organisms that had to ensure reproduction and survival far away from water. 

    Due to such environmental pressure, some plants responded by having a protective coat around their embryos – the first seed plants – while some animals responded by developing several features: the ability to procreate without water bodies, three membranes around their embryos, better homeostasis, a water-impermeable skin, and a robust air-breathing respiratory system (to power terrestrial locomotion) – the first amniotes. 

    At this point, it is important to highlight that regarding the embryo development feature in amniotes,  already at around 300.000.000 years ago, way more biological responsibilities were being designated to the female organisms (the ones who fabricate the egg cells) regarding reproduction, with the development inside their bodies of at least the three layers of membranes around their embryo.

    This means that female burden is not given; it was (and is) physically (environmentally) constructed. Contrary to the popular belief that evolutionary features are primarily magical or random, a closer examination reveals that metabolism is way more attached and dependent on environmental conditions to take place, and genes are the byproducts of metabolism (see my previous article). Therefore, responding to planetary constraints is what multicellular life has been doing on the planet Earth’s surface since it started (according to what we know so far) around 575.000.000 years ago. 

    Still related to Mantle activity, by 250.000.000 years ago, Pangea started to crack, with some portions of the ocean rising between the continental landmasses. The intense volcanic activities caused elevated temperatures, keeping the whole surface ice-free. Sea levels experienced intense fluctuations with surges up to 75 meters on the eustatic sea level (the distance from the center of the Earth to the sea surface), creating numerous shallow inland seas. Such environmental changes resulted in a massive extinction that affected 81% of marine and 70% of terrestrial species.

    The saga of planetary changes continues, always causing direct consequences in multicellular life (that are still going on today); that is why it is so important to understand that Pangea is not a curiosity. It is a lesson.  

    It’s about time to start deeply exploring the relationship between environment and multicellular life. 

    Life on Earth’s surface is not a force that adapts to the environments surrounding it. 

    Life on Earth’s surface is shaped by the planet’s physical conditions.

    Those statements automatically lead us to a very liberating and comforting realization – we are way more connected to the place and time we currently inhabit, instead of the ones we imagine we came from.

    All references for this article can be found in my publication, Beliefs of a Female Architect. If you enjoy science writing completely grounded in empirical evidence, check it out. It might be something for you.

  • What Life Actually Is

    What Life Actually Is

    Starting with the obvious, everything that exists on planet Earth is made out of the elements portrayed in the periodic table. 

    An atom of an element consists of an extremely dense nucleus made of positively charged protons and uncharged neutrons, with negatively charged clouds – the electrons – orbiting the nucleus. The number of neutrons (isotopes) and the number of electrons (ions) can vary within the same element, therefore, what defines an element is the number of protons in its core (1 proton hydrogen, 2 protons helium, and so forth).

    Since the stars in the universe were ignited not earlier than 13.650.000.000 years ago, a reaction that occurs at their core called nuclear fusion has been “burning” hydrogen and helium, generating enormous amounts of energy and producing – as byproducts – atoms of different elements of the periodic table – up to iron (26) at the star core, up to Lead(82) at the star shell layers, and up to plutonium(94) in phenomena that can quickly generate a massive influx of neutrons (like a supernova). 

    Due to its position in the solar system, Planet Earth is made out of atoms from hydrogen(1) to plutonium(94), whose quantities and distribution within planetary layers were determined by its genesis processes. 

    At the physical conditions found on planet Earth, almost all atoms tend to bond with other atoms, and they do so through the lasting attraction between their electrons – originating molecules. 

    The molecules appear in all shapes, designs, and sizes – they can contain just two atoms of the same element (O2 oxygen gas, H2 hydrogen gas) as well as millions of atoms of different elements (RNA, DNA molecules). 

    Within all the elements that Earth is (and was) made of, one stands out as an excellent building block of molecules – carbon. Because of its intrinsic properties (number and configuration of its electrons), carbon atoms can attach with many different elements through a wide variety of bonds and shapes, enabling enormous molecules to take place (by definition, every molecule with a carbon bond is an organic molecule – for historical reasons some carbon compounds are considered inorganic). 

    Under some very specific circumstances atoms of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen (elements that were and still are abundant on Earth) can fuse together (with smaller quantities of elements like phosphorus, sulfur, and iron) generating complex organic molecules.

    According to their composition, shape, and design, these complex organic molecules are classified as amino acids (building blocks of proteins and enzymes), lipids (building blocks of membranes), nucleotides (building blocks of genes – RNA and DNA molecules), and carbohydrates (also building blocks of genes and enzymes). 

    In order to forge these complex organic molecules, a special reaction must occur. 

    In a parallel, the same way that nuclear fusion in the stars needs certain environmental conditions to generate the energy loop that fabricates (as byproducts) the elements of the periodic table, the special reaction also needs certain (microscopic) environmental conditions to generate a (tiny) energy bolt loop that fabricates (as byproducts) the complex organic molecules. 

    This (tiny) energy loop requires a (microscopic) container with its internal walls electromagnetically charged (electrons of their atoms avid to bond), together with some fluid inside that provides atoms (the fuel) to react with the internal wall. Under these environmental conditions, a microscopic (atomic level) bolt of lightning is generated along the internal wall that reignites itself through a chain of chemical reactions that, in turn, fabricates (as byproducts) complex organic molecules (such as RNA, DNA). 

    This special reaction, this tiny lightning bolt loop fabricating complex organic molecules, is called metabolism. 

    This is an excerpt from my publication Beliefs of a Female Architect. If you enjoy science writing completely grounded in empirical evidence, it might be something for you.

    All sources that shaped this article are available at the publication Beliefs of a Female Architect.

  • Planet Earth Is Thin

    Planet Earth Is Thin

    A dynamic fusion of Earth’s solid crust, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere forms a very, very, very thin layer corresponding to less than 1% of Earth’s total volume – the Surface.

    Planet Earth’s Surface is so important that very often, even today, humans refer to it as if they are referring to the whole planet.

    Earth’s Surface has an area of around 510,070,000 km²: 361,130,000 km² (70.8%) of water and 148,940,000 km² (29.2%) of land. Its thickness ranges from 105 km to 170 km – 100 km corresponds to the atmosphere, and 5 km to 70 km corresponds to the land. To contextualize, planet Earth’s radius is around 6,371 km.

    All of this started to form around 4,500,000,000 years ago (right after the Earth and Moon forming event). At this point, the difference in temperature between Earth’s mantle and the atmosphere started to thicken Earth’s outermost solid layer. The Surface became a relatively cool but hardened shell within a few million years, with most mantle heat escaping via volcanism.

    As the heated volcanic material rose to the top, it cooled and deposited at the surface. While the planet’s external layer grew thicker and heavier, it eventually began to slowly sink back to the mantle, where it heated and returned to the surface via volcanism.

    This thicker surface created pressure on the heated mantle, which in turn made the shell layer discreetly expand. With tidal interactions, collisions with astronomical bodies, and also under the magnetosphere’s influence, the entire planet’s surface started to crack within just 40,000,000 years. 

    Those enormous chunks of cracked material began to move around on top of the mantle. The heated mantle material rose through the cracks, released heat as it approached the surface, and then sank again, setting up convection currents.

    Several convection currents moved around Earth in a process called tectonic plates. Because of their proportions, their structure, dynamics, and components are mostly influenced by gravitational interactions with other astronomical bodies, especially the Sun and the Moon.

    Since Earth’s formation, astronomical bodies—comets, meteorites, and other objects—have clashed with the planet’s Surface. Those bombardments have decreased throughout the years (there is no significant fabrication of solids after the solar system’s formation), but they still hit Earth quite often.

    Because some of those impactors were massive, leaving huge marks on Earth’s solid crust, it is easy to assume that they must significantly influence the surface’s evolution. However, mineral analyses steadily show that the Earth’s Surface structure, dynamics, and components are far more affected by what happens in Earth’s internal layers.

    This same engine that has been going on for billions of years is still running today. Recently, some interesting studies have shed light on the ongoing Earth Surface dynamics.

    One study focused on a 100 km region of the Southeast Indian Ridge, where an event released around 160 million cubic meters of lava onto the sea floor and shifted two sections of the oceanic crust apart by at least 2 meters in a matter of days. As the existing crust is pulled away from the ridge by the movement of tectonic plates, new crust is produced by magma that wells up from Earth’s core and solidifies.

    The other study revealed that eastern Africa is closer to splitting apart than previously thought. The Turkana Rift Zone in Kenya, a critical segment of the East African Rift System, is undergoing a process called “necking” (a stage in continental breakup). High-resolution seismic data show that the crystalline crust beneath the rift has thinned to about 13 km along the rift axis, revealing an active rift undergoing crustal necking. The identification of necking in the East African Rift System indicates that eastern Africa is primed for continental breakup – what was once a molten crack is now a continent in the process of becoming two. 

    Curiously, despite all evidence, it is more mainstream science that everything that affects Earth’s Surface—the crust, the atmosphere, and the biosphere—comes from outer space (from the “sky”), with popular narratives often emphasizing asteroid impacts or solar radiation as the primary shapers of Earth’s Surface. 

    It is still challenging for humans to recognize that the atmosphere, biosphere, and crust are byproducts of planetary interactions, rather than causes in themselves.

    It is important to highlight that what makes planet Earth’s Surface so remarkable is not its thickness, but its thinness. It is not its permanence, but its dynamism. It is not its stability, but its relentlessness.

    The evidence that Earth’s Surface is dynamic, fragile, and constantly changing is not a matter of opinion. Empirical evidence is not a political statement, and it does not need to be believed to be true. It is data. 

    And yet, the acknowledgment of these facts (and what they mean for the human relationship with the planet) remains entangled in political debate. 

    The question is not whether to believe it. The question is what to do with it.

    Whether to act on the evidence, or to protect the Surface that sustains all life, is not a matter of choice – it is a matter of necessity.

    The Surface does not care about human politics. It will continue to crack, to spread, to build new crust, to change its atmosphere, to tear continents apart. The only question is whether humans will recognize what is happening in time to respond.