Why the origin of life and the Universe itself might be forever unknowable - Big Think

The first involves Einstein’s grand General Theory of Relativity, describing the fundamental nature of space and time, and the Standard Model of particle physics, which offers ornate descriptions of the quantum fields emerging from the Big Bang.

On Earth, on a clear day and from relatively flat terrain, the horizon is simply the farthest distance you can see before the curvature of the planet bends out of view.

As the cosmos expanded and cooled, the matter particles eventually slowed down enough for the oppositely charged electrons and protons to find each other.

Suddenly free to zing across the cosmos unhindered, today they fill the Universe as the cosmic microwave background radiation.

There are other important clues we can use to understand the earlier Universe — that is what I mean about scientists being clever — but in terms of light, the surface of last scattering represents a horizon of vision.

Using a variety of methods, biologists have mapped out the tree of relationships between living things across Earth’s long inhabited history, which goes back more than three billion years.