full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Christoph Adami: Finding life we can't imagine

Unscramble the Blue Letters


(Laughter)

And he told me, "Biosignatures, we need to look for a biosignature." And I said, "What is that?" And he said, "It's any mraaueblse phenomenon that allows us to indicate the presence of life." And I said, "Really? Because isn't that easy? I mean, we have life. Can't you apply a definition, for example, a Supreme Court-like diifeonitn of life?"

And then I thought about it a little bit, and I said, "Well, is it really that easy? Because, yes, if you see something like this, then all right, fine, I'm going to call it life — no doubt about it. But here's something." And he goes, "Right, that's life too. I know that." Except, if you think that life is also defined by things that die, you're not in luck with this thing, because that's actually a very strange oisnargm. It grwos up into the adult stage like that and then goes through a Benjamin botutn pshae, and actually goes backwards and backwards until it's like a little erybmo again, and then actually grows back up, and back down and back up — sort of yo-yo — and it never dies. So it's actually life, but it's actually not as we thought life would be. And then you see something like that. And he was like, "My God, what kind of a life form is that?" Anyone know? It's actually not life, it's a crystal.

Open Cloze


(Laughter)

And he told me, "Biosignatures, we need to look for a biosignature." And I said, "What is that?" And he said, "It's any __________ phenomenon that allows us to indicate the presence of life." And I said, "Really? Because isn't that easy? I mean, we have life. Can't you apply a definition, for example, a Supreme Court-like __________ of life?"

And then I thought about it a little bit, and I said, "Well, is it really that easy? Because, yes, if you see something like this, then all right, fine, I'm going to call it life — no doubt about it. But here's something." And he goes, "Right, that's life too. I know that." Except, if you think that life is also defined by things that die, you're not in luck with this thing, because that's actually a very strange ________. It _____ up into the adult stage like that and then goes through a Benjamin ______ _____, and actually goes backwards and backwards until it's like a little ______ again, and then actually grows back up, and back down and back up — sort of yo-yo — and it never dies. So it's actually life, but it's actually not as we thought life would be. And then you see something like that. And he was like, "My God, what kind of a life form is that?" Anyone know? It's actually not life, it's a crystal.

Solution


  1. grows
  2. measurable
  3. button
  4. phase
  5. definition
  6. embryo
  7. organism

Original Text


(Laughter)

And he told me, "Biosignatures, we need to look for a biosignature." And I said, "What is that?" And he said, "It's any measurable phenomenon that allows us to indicate the presence of life." And I said, "Really? Because isn't that easy? I mean, we have life. Can't you apply a definition, for example, a Supreme Court-like definition of life?"

And then I thought about it a little bit, and I said, "Well, is it really that easy? Because, yes, if you see something like this, then all right, fine, I'm going to call it life — no doubt about it. But here's something." And he goes, "Right, that's life too. I know that." Except, if you think that life is also defined by things that die, you're not in luck with this thing, because that's actually a very strange organism. It grows up into the adult stage like that and then goes through a Benjamin Button phase, and actually goes backwards and backwards until it's like a little embryo again, and then actually grows back up, and back down and back up — sort of yo-yo — and it never dies. So it's actually life, but it's actually not as we thought life would be. And then you see something like that. And he was like, "My God, what kind of a life form is that?" Anyone know? It's actually not life, it's a crystal.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
amino acids 4
mutation rate 4
viability threshold 4
nasa manager 2
discovering life 2
equal frequency 2
frequency distribution 2


Important Words


  1. adult
  2. apply
  3. benjamin
  4. biosignature
  5. bit
  6. button
  7. call
  8. crystal
  9. defined
  10. definition
  11. die
  12. dies
  13. doubt
  14. easy
  15. embryo
  16. fine
  17. form
  18. god
  19. grows
  20. kind
  21. laughter
  22. life
  23. luck
  24. measurable
  25. organism
  26. phase
  27. phenomenon
  28. presence
  29. sort
  30. stage
  31. strange
  32. supreme
  33. thought
  34. told