The origins of everything

THE ORIGIN OF
EVERYTHING
A non-scientist’s collection of the science
on the origins of life and the universe
Prepared By Imran Almaleh

CONTENTS
1. Critical thinking and Skepticisms
2. The cosmic Calendar
3. The Big Bang
4. Stars
a) Formation
b) Death
5. Earth Formation
6. Life Formation
7. Life Evolution
8. Human Evolution
9. Human History

The origin of everything – prepared by Imran Almaleh
INTRODUCTION
 Being a research analyst and an active learner, I am always passionate and fascinated
by the scientific inquiry into social science, life and the universe
 This material serves as a simplified, scientific and rich collection coming from multiple
scientific disciplines: biology, astrophysics, chemistry, physics, geology, anthropology
and history
 I believe that understanding the Origins will help us achieve:
 A Better appreciation of our Life
 Better care for our planet
 Equality and care for all life on earth
 Humbleness to the vastness of space and time
Note: All the information sources can be explored in the references mentioned in the appendix

1-CRITICAL THINKING AND SKEPTICISM

CRITICAL THINKING
 Before going into the information in this material, I thought it would be beneficial to all
readers – given the quantum of information we are constantly drowning in- to start with
an objective tool for evaluating information: critical thinking.
 Critical thinking is the process of actively conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, and
evaluating information gathered from observation, experience, reasoning, or
communication, as a guide to make better decisions and generally understand things
better.
 To develop better critical thinking:
 Ask Basic Questions
 Question Basic Assumptions
 Evaluate the Existing Evidence
 Remember to Think for Yourself

HUMAN COGNITIVE BIASES
 Cognitive biases are systematic patterns of deviation from norm or rationality in judgment,
and are often studied in psychology and behavioral economics
 A few important examples to keep in mind:
 Confirmation bias, people tend to listen more often to information that confirms the beliefs
they already have
 Anchoring, We tend to be overly influenced by the first piece of information (anchor) that we
hear when making decisions or forming opinions
 Hindsight bias, also known as the ‘knew-it-all-along effect’, is a common cognitive bias that
involves the tendency of people to see events, even random ones, as more predictable than they
are
 The Availability Heuristic, After seeing several news reports of car thefts in your neighborhood,
you might start to believe that such crimes are more common than they are. This tendency to
estimate the probability of something happening based on how many examples readily come to
mind is known as the availability heuristic

SKEPTICISM
 To navigate the sea of information currently in the world, here are 8 junk detection
questions you can ask yourself:
1. How reliable is the source of the information?
2. Does this information match with the source’s information?
3. Is the information verified by another source?
4. Does this fit with what we know about how the world works?
5. Has anyone tried to disprove this?
6. Does the majority of the evidence point to the same conclusion?
7. Has the information been concluded based on a scientific approach?
8. Are personal beliefs driving the claim?
 If you can’t confidently answer these questions, the information is probably JUNK!
Based roughly on: Carl Sagan, Michael Shermer

THE COSMIC CALENDAR
 The Cosmic Calendar is a method to visualize the chronology of the
universe, scaling its current age of 13.8 billion years to a single year in
order to help understand the scale of time better
 In this visualization, the Big Bang took place at the beginning of January
1 at midnight, and the current moment maps onto the end of
December 31 just before midnight.
 At this scale, there are 437.5 years per second, 1.575 million years per
hour, and 37.8 million years per day
Date Gya Event
1 Jan 13.8 Big Bang, as seen through cosmic background radiation
14 Jan 13.1 Oldest known Gamma Ray Burst
22 Jan 12.85 First galaxies form
16 Mar 11 Milky Way Galaxy formed
12 May 8.8 Milky Way Galaxy disk formed
2 Sep4.57 formation of the Solar System
6 Sep4.4 Oldest rocks known on Earth

13.8BillionYearsScaledto1CalendarYear

THE BIG BANG
 Is the prevailing cosmological model for the observable universe
 The model describes how the universe expanded from a very high-density and
high-temperature state
 Detailed measurements of the expansion rate of the universe place the Big
Bang at around 13.8 billion years
 in 1964, the cosmic microwave background radiation was discovered
confirming the big bang theory

ELECTROMAGNATIC WAVE-LENGTHS
 Light is essentially a form of electromagnetic radiation (waves)
 Looking at space with different wavelength telescopes enable’s us to see light that travelled
much older in time (effectively, looking back in time)

Theuniverseseenwithdifferentwavelengthstelescopes

THE TIMELINE

ESA

STAR FORMATION
 Is the process by which dense
regions within molecular clouds (gas
and dust) in space, sometimes
referred to as "stellar nurseries" or
"star-forming regions", collapse and
form stars
 There are many types of stars
 Average stars
 Red giants
 Super red giant
 White dwarfs
 Brown dwarf
 Black dwarfs
 Stars operate on nuclear fusion of
Hydrogen and helium for most of
the star’s life

our Sun formation

Star formation from a cloud of dust and gas – artist impression

Types of star
formation and
demise

Average Stars life cycle and examples

AVERAGE STAR DEATH (OUR SUN)
 Most stars take millions of years to die
 When a star like the Sun has burned all of its hydrogen fuel, it expands to become
a red giant
 big enough to swallow the planets Mercury and Venus then puff off its outer
layers
 After puffing off its outer layers, it forms a planetary nebula
 the star collapses to form a very dense white dwarf
 The white dwarf cools and becomes invisible

Infra-redVisible light
Helix Planetary nebula

White dwarf star – artist rendition

STAR DEATH 2
 If a star (8-15x) larger than the sun dies, it
generates a supernova
 On average, a supernova will occur about
once every 50 years in a galaxy the size of
the Milky Way
 As the star nears its end, it starts fusing
heavier elements until it reaches Iron (which
is not fusible onto heavier elements due to
the massive amount of energy requirement)

CASSIOPEIA A SUPERNOVA REMNANT

EARTH FORMATION
 Earth formed around 4.54 billion years ago
 It formed by the accumulation of particles (matter) from
the solar nebula (disc-shaped cloud of gas and dust left
over from the Sun's formation)
 Below are the different ages of the earth:
Age (eon) Time (Mya) Description
Hadean 4,540–4,000
The Earth is formed out of debris around the solar protoplanetary disk. There is no
life. Temperatures are extremely hot, with frequent volcanic activity and hellish
environments. Possible early oceans or bodies of liquid water. The moon is formed
around this time
Archean 4,000–2,500
the first form of life, emerges at the very beginning of this eon, in a process known
as abiogenesis. The atmosphere is composed of volcanic material and gases
Proterozoic 2,500–541
a more complex form of life, emerge, including some forms of multicellular
organisms. Bacteria begin producing oxygen, shaping the third and current of
Earth's atmospheres. Plants, later animals form around this time. The early and late
phases of this eon may have undergone ice periods.
Phanerozoic 541–present
Complex life begin to dominate the Earth's ocean in a process known as
the Cambrian explosion. Gradually, life expands to land and all familiar forms of
plants, animals and fungi begin appearing

The origin of everything – prepared by Imran Almalehhttps://youtu.be/j5yEsmIpm98

ABIOGENESIS
 Abiogenesis (informally: the origin of life), is the natural process
by which life arises from non-living matter, such as simple
organic compounds
 The transition from non-living to living entities was not a single
event, but a gradual process of increasing complexity that
involved molecular self-replication, self-assembly, autocatalysis
and cell membranes
 In 1952 a research concluded: the chemical constituents of the
proteins used in all living organisms, can be synthesized from
inorganic compounds under conditions intended to replicate
those of the early Earth
 More research took place by other scientist in 1952, 1953, 1961
coming to similar conclusions
1952: Miller–Urey experiment

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyzScxiGK20

EVOLUTION
 evolution is the change in the characteristics of a species
over several generations and relies on the process of
natural selection
 Evolution relies on genetic variation in a population
which affects the physical characteristics of an organism
 Some of these characteristics may give the individual an
advantage over other individuals which they can then
pass on to their offspring
 Evidence for evolution can be found in: Embryology,
DNA analysis, fossil records, vestigial elements

NATURAL SELECTION
 Natural selection is one of the basic mechanisms of evolution, along with
mutation, migration, and genetic drift.
 Darwin's grand idea of evolution by natural selection is relatively simple but
often misunderstood. To find out how it works, imagine a population of
beetles:
1. There is variation in traits
2. There is differential reproduction
3. There is heredity
4. Brown beetles dominate

NATURAL SELECTION

EVIDENCE FOR EVOLUTION
 Evidence for evolution comes from many different areas of biology:
 Anatomy. Species may share similar physical features because the feature was present in a
common ancestor (homologous structures).
 Molecular biology. DNA and the genetic code reflect the shared ancestry of life. DNA
comparisons can show how related species are.
 Biogeography. The global distribution of organisms and the unique features of island species
reflect evolution and geological change.
 Fossils. Fossils document the existence of now-extinct past species that are related to present-
day species.
 Direct observation. We can directly observe small-scale evolution in organisms with short
lifecycles (e.g., pesticide-resistant insects).

EMBRYOLOGY

HOMOLOGOUS STRUCTURES

MOLECULAR BIOLOGY - DNA
 Like structural homologies, similarities
between biological molecules can reflect
shared evolutionary ancestry. At the most
basic level, all living organisms share:
 The same genetic material (DNA)
 The same, or highly similar, genetic
codes
 The same basic process of gene
expression
 The same molecular building blocks,
such as amino acids

BIO-GEOGRAPHY
 The geographic distribution of organisms on Earth
follows patterns that are best explained by evolution,
in combination with the movement of tectonic plates
over geological time
 For instance, there are unique groups of plants and
animals on northern and southern continents that can
be traced to the split of Pangaea into two
supercontinents
Pangaea

FOSSIL RECORD - WHALES

FOSSIL RECORD – HORSES (EQUUS GENE)

DIRECT EVIDENCE
 in the 1950s, there was a worldwide effort to eradicate malaria by eliminating its carriers
(certain types of mosquitos). The pesticide DDT was sprayed broadly in areas where the
mosquitoes lived, and at first, the DDT was highly effective at killing the mosquitos. However,
over time, the DDT became less and less effective, and more and more mosquitoes survived.
This was because the mosquito population evolved resistance to the pesticide.
 other examples: antibiotic-resistant bacteria, drug-resistant HIV, flu virus

THE TREE OF LIFE

TREEOFLIFE(HUMANANDFISHANCESTRY)

HUMAN EVOLUTION
 is the evolutionary process that led to the emergence of anatomically
modern humans, beginning with the evolutionary history of primates –
in particular genus Homo – and leading to the emergence of Homo
sapiens as a distinct species of the hominid family
 Scientific evidence shows that the physical and behavioral traits shared
by all people originated from apelike ancestors and evolved over a
period of approximately six million years
Species shown in the
pictures are not our
ancestors, but rather our
living cousins

HUMANANCESTRALLINKS

A model of the evolution of the genus Homo over the last 2 million years (vertical axis). The rapid
"Out of Africa" expansion of H. sapiens is indicated at the top of the diagram, with admixture
indicated with Neanderthals, Denisovans, and unspecified archaic African hominins.
Homo Habilis

The origin of everything – prepared by Imran Almalehhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo

In Eurasia, interbreeding between
Neanderthals and Denisovans with
modern humans took place several times
between about 100,000 and 40,000 years
ago, both before and after the recent
out-of-Africa migration 70,000 years ago
This is evident through traces of DNA in
the current generation of humans

LINKS FOR MORE INFORMATION
 http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-evolution-timeline-
interactive
 https://www.evogeneao.com/explore/tree-of-life-explorer

THE HUMAN HISTORICAL TIMELINE

PRE-HISTORY
 Scholars define prehistory as events that occurred before the existence of written records in a given
culture or society.
 History refers to the time period after the invention of written records in a given culture or society.
 Archaeologists have discovered written records in Egypt from as early as 3200 BCE, which is the
accepted date at which history "begins" there.
 Written records give historians resources to deal with that are more detailed in some ways than
other records, such as archaeological or biological remains.
 Homo sapiens, the first modern humans, evolved from their early hominid predecessors between
200,000 and 300,000 years ago. They developed a capacity for language about 50,000 years ago.
 The first modern humans began moving outside of Africa starting about 70,000-100,000 years ago.
 Humans are the only known species to have successfully populated, adapted to, and significantly
altered a wide variety of land regions across the world, resulting in profound historical and
environmental impacts.

PRE-HISTORY - PALEOLITHIC
 Paleolithic is a period in human prehistory distinguished by the
original development of stone tools that covers c. 95% of human
technological prehistory
 Paleolithic societies were largely dependent on foraging and
hunting
 While hominid species evolved through natural selection for
millions of years, cultural evolution accounts for most of the
significant changes in the history of Homo sapiens
 Small bands of hunter-gatherers lived, worked, and migrated
together before the advent of agriculture
Paleolithic tools found in Bernifal cave in Meyrals,
Dordogne, France, estimated to be 12,000 - 10,000
years old
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

PRE-HISTORY – NEOLITHIC
 Agriculture likely began during the Neolithic Era before
roughly 9000 BCE when polished stone tools were
developed and the last ice age ended.
 Historians have several theories about why many
societies switched from hunting and foraging to settled
agriculture.
 One of these theories is that a surplus in production led
to greater population. Not everyone needed to be
focused on food production, which led to specialization
of labor and complex societies.

Approximate centers of origin of agriculture in the Neolithic revolution and its spread in prehistory: the Fertile
Crescent (11,000 BP), the Yangtze and Yellow River basins (9,000 BP) and the New Guinea Highlands (9,000–
6,000 BP), Central Mexico (5,000–4,000 BP), Northern South America (5,000–4,000 BP), sub-Saharan Africa
(5,000–4,000 BP, exact location unknown), eastern North America (4,000–3,000 BP)

ANCIENT AGE
 Mesopotamia region
 Sumerian 3000 BCE
 Akkadian (Sargon) 2500 BCE
 Babylonia (Hammurabi) 1800 BCE
 Assyrian 900 BCE
 Neo Babylonian (Nebuchadnezzar ii) 700 BCE
 Egypt region
 United Egypt – Menes 3100 BCE
 Khufu / Sneferu 2500 BCE
 Akhenaten 1300 BCE

TO CONCLUDE..
 Hopefully the information presented here have left you with a better perspective
of life and the universe around you
 The information gathered here can be viewed as a seed to spark more curiosity
into the vast amount of scientific information available to us today
“A great challenge of life: Knowing enough to think you're doing it right, but not
enough to know you're doing it wrong.”
Neil deGrasse Tyson
Stay Curious..

APPENDIX
REFERENCES AND FURTHER READINGS

REFERENCES
 Lectures, Videos: Neil de Grasse Tyson, Richard Dawkins, Lawrence Krause, Michel
Shermer
 Cosmos series - Netflix
 Lectures, Videos: Khan Academy in Biology, Astrophysics, human history
 Wikipedia
 Book: Astrophysics for people in a hurry
 skeptic.com
 Nasa.com
 European Space Agency (ESA)
 Thomson higher education
 Pearson education
 Encyclopedia Britannica

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