Consciousness May Have Existed 100 Million Years Before Life. The Proof Might Be in 121 Grams of Dust.

Over 4 billion years ago, an asteroid called Bennu was drifting through the solar system. Three years ago, NASA brought 121.6 grams of that space rock back to Earth. Scientists wanted to see if the sample contained clues about how life began.

What they found instead was so much stranger: the sample contained molecules that could have formed crystalline formations that some scientists believe are key to consciousness.

That’s the premise behind one of Pop Mech’s most mind-bending new stories, “Consciousness Formed Before Life Itself, Scientists Say—And the Evidence Could Be in This Asteroid Sample.” Could the physical ingredients for consciousness really have existed prior to biology taking hold on Earth?

Watch Pop Mech editors Andrew Daniels and Shawn Gorman talk about this wild story and what it would actually mean if this science checks out. They break down how a tiny sample of dust is leading to a much bigger debate about what makes us, well, us.

Andrew and Shawn dig into the obvious question: are we talking about life’s building blocks, or something even deeper? And how seriously should we take a theory that sounds like sci-fi, but is being proposed by real researchers with real data?

Watch the full episode above now, and find more installments of “The Astounding Pop Mech Show” on PopularMechanics.com.

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