The Origins of Life: From the Big Bang to Evolution

Life may have emerged just seconds after the Big Bang, according to a broad definition of life as anything subject to Darwinian evolution. Earth's first life forms likely appeared over 3.7 billion years ago, but simpler versions of life could have arisen even earlier. The necessary elements for life, such as carbon and oxygen, are created in the cores of stars, so as long as there have been one or two generations of stars in the universe, Earth-like life could have emerged. Additionally, there is the possibility of life without chemistry, such as hypothetical "dark life" that could have existed before the first stars, powered by unknown forces.