The Modern Universe

Although human beings arrived on Earth just ~300,000 years ago, we’ve transformed the entire planet completely. Here’s how we did it.

Despite billions of years of life on Earth, humans first arose only ~300,000 years ago. It took all that time to make our arrival possible.

Although mammals may be the dominant form of life today, we’re relative newcomers on planet Earth. Here’s our place in natural history.

For billions of years on Earth, life was limited to simple unicellular, non-differentiated organisms. In a mere flash, that changed forever.

Known as the Great Oxygenation Event, Earth froze over as oxygen accumulated in our atmosphere, nearly driving all life extinct.

Although early Earth was a molten hellscape, once it cooled, life arose almost immediately. That original chain of life remains unbroken.

Earth wasn’t created until more than 9 billion years after the Big Bang. In some lucky places, life could have arisen almost right away.