Synopsis

"Origins: How Life Began" probes the enduring enigma of life's first emergence. The program follows the quest for resilient microbes thriving in environments previously thought uninhabitable: within rocks deep inside a mine shaft, in caves saturated with acid as corrosive as a car battery, and in the toxic gas plumes venting from the Pacific ocean floor. The tenacity of these hardy microorganisms hints at a connection to the planet's earliest, simplest life forms. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Ty