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  • Hello and welcome to SciShow.

  • Our goal here is to excitedly and enthusiastically share the marvelous peculiarity of the world and give people the opportunity to know more about themselves and their universe.

  • Recently, we were talking to some people at Google about this goal and they were like,

  • "What if, like, we gave you the most asked questions in the world?"

  • That seemed like a really good idea to us, so they did that.

  • And then after filtering out the ones about Kim Kardashian, we were left with a list of ten of the most googled scientific questions ever.

  • This is the World's Most Asked Questions.

  • Answering questions is what science is all about, and we love it.

  • So let's start out with the first one: What is the meaning of life?

  • Yeah, it doesn't necessarily sound like a question for SciShow, but it kinda depends on your definition of "meaning" and your definition of "life."

  • The person asking is probably wondering what the purpose of THEIR life is...which I'm not going to weigh in on.

  • And probably, Google isn't the place to look for that answer.

  • But the purpose of life itself? That's actually a question that science has come a good long way to understanding.

  • The biggest idea in understanding the history of life on earth, and probably everywhere, if there is life elsewhere, is evolution.

  • Once upon a time, one thing made a copy of itself, creating a kind of immortality for that thing.

  • Though, of course, not really, because the thing died. But the instructions for making it were passed on.

  • Because the second thing had the instructions, it was able to make more of the things in the image of the first thing.

  • The things themselves kept dying, but the instructions lived on, and there we have the bizarre and occasionally upsetting meaning of life, biologically, to pass on the instructions for creating more life.

  • Those instructions, these days, are DNA, or, for some simple organisms, RNA -- molecules that contain segments that code for different proteins, and those proteins do the majority of the constructing of the actual organism.

  • In a weird way, the life of an individual organism is just a system for keeping the genes goin'.

  • Genes that don't contribute to that task, or especially if they interfere with it, won't get passed because the organism will die before it has a chance to do any breeding.

  • And there we have the primary mechanism of evolution.

  • So, yeah, in a somewhat gritty sense, the biological meaning of life is to live long enough to pass your genes on to the next generation.

  • So, basically, don't die, and have sex.

  • But simultaneously, there is a much more pleasant way of saying that.

  • The meaning of life is to create life, to perpetuate life, to sustain and grow this marvelous and astouding complexity that is unique in the known universe.

  • As for the meaning of your own life...that's up to you to figure out.

  • Leading up to this project, we did a little SciShow viewer survey where we asked you,

  • our viewers, a bunch of questions, including whether you felt like you knew roughly what you were doing here on earth.

  • In other words, whether you had some idea of the meaning of your life.

  • And the results of our very unscientific analysis of this survey were fascinating.

  • A full two thirds of you feel like you know roughly what you're doing here on earth,

  • but those who didn't were were substantially more likely to suffer from chronic hiccups.

  • So either knowing your place in the world decreases your likelihood of getting hiccups, or getting hiccups, increases the chance that you will feel aimless.

  • Or possibly there's some completely different effect going on, or our completely non-scientific survey is not actually very good at predicting things.

  • People who had some idea of their purpose were also more likely to have beards, be religious, and have fallen in love.

  • And people who didn't feel like they knew what their purpose was were 26% more likely to hold violet as their favorite color of the rainbow.

  • So that's just WEIRD!

  • Of all the fascinating questions in the world, what question do you most want answered?

  • Let us know on Facebook or Twitter or in the comments down below, and we will answer the best questions in a new video at the end of the month.

  • Don't forget to use the hashtag #WMAQ and stay tuned for more questions answered here on SciShow.

Hello and welcome to SciShow.

Subtitles and vocabulary

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B1 US life scishow meaning organism survey purpose

World's Most Asked Questions: What is the Meaning of Life?

  • 8 0
    Jack posted on 2025/07/09
Video vocabulary

Keywords

weird

US /wɪrd/

UK /wɪəd/

  • adjective
  • Odd or unusual; surprising; strange
  • Suggesting something supernatural; odd.
  • Eerily strange or disturbing.
chronic

US /ˈkrɑnɪk/

UK /'krɒnɪk/

  • adjective
  • Always or often doing something, e.g. lying
  • (of a person) having a bad habit that is difficult to change.
  • (of an illness) persisting for a long time or constantly recurring.
  • (Of disease) over a long time; serious
individual

US /ˌɪndəˈvɪdʒuəl/

UK /ˌɪndɪˈvɪdʒuəl/

  • adjective
  • Made for use by one single person
  • Relating to, or characteristic of, a single person or thing.
  • Single; separate.
  • Having a striking or unusual character; original.
  • Made for or relating to a single person or thing.
  • Having a distinct manner different from others
  • Relating to, or characteristic of, a single person or thing.
  • Single; separate.
  • Having a striking personal quality or style.
  • noun
  • Single person, looked at separately from others
  • A particular person or thing distinguished from others of the same kind.
  • A person, especially one of specified character.
  • A person, especially one of a specified kind.
  • A single thing or item, especially when part of a set or group.
  • A single human being as distinct from a group.
  • A competition for single people.
bunch

US /bʌntʃ/

UK /bʌntʃ/

  • other
  • (of a fabric) gather or cause to gather into folds or wrinkles.
  • other
  • Collect or gather together.
  • noun
  • A group of things of the same kind
  • A group of people regarded as a unit; a company.
  • A group of people.
  • verb
  • To group people or things closely together
  • (Cloth) to gather/be gathered together in folds
opportunity

US /ˌɑpɚˈtunɪti, -ˈtju-/

UK /ˌɒpə'tju:nətɪ/

  • noun
  • Time, situation when a thing might be done; chance
  • A favorable or advantageous circumstance or combination of circumstances.
  • A chance to do or achieve something in business.
  • A set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something.
  • A favorable time or occasion for doing something.
  • A favorable juncture of circumstances.
  • A situation or condition that provides a job prospect.
  • A possibility of employment or promotion.
  • A situation or occasion affording some advantage.
  • Scope for exercising a talent or skill.
  • A time or situation in which something can be done.
majority

US /məˈdʒɔrɪti, -ˈdʒɑr-/

UK /mə'dʒɒrətɪ/

  • noun
  • Amount that is more than half of a group
  • The age at which a person is legally considered an adult.
  • The age at which a person is legally considered an adult.
  • The number by which votes cast for one candidate exceeds those for another.
  • The greater number; more than half of a total group or amount.
  • The excess of votes for one party or candidate over those for all others combined.
simultaneously

US /saɪməlˈtenɪəslɪ/

UK /ˌsɪməl'teɪnɪəslɪ/

  • adverb
  • At the same time; all together
fascinating

US /ˈfæsəˌnetɪŋ/

UK /ˈfæsɪneɪtɪŋ/

  • adjective
  • Having your attention fixated as though by a spell
  • Extremely interesting or attractive
  • Extremely interesting or attractive.
  • Extremely interesting or attractive.
  • Extremely interesting or attractive.
  • verb
  • To attract or interest greatly
  • To attract strong interest and attention.
  • other
  • To attract; to strongly interest
  • To hold someone captive with a gaze or other means.
  • To attract and hold someone's attention by being extremely interesting or attractive.
  • noun
  • The quality of being extremely interesting or attractive.
completely

US /kəmˈpliːtli/

UK /kəmˈpli:tli/

  • adverb
  • In every way or as much as possible; totally.
  • In every way or as much as possible
  • Totally; entirely.
  • To the greatest extent; thoroughly.
  • In every way or as much as possible; totally.
  • Including all or everything; without anything lacking.
  • Thoroughly; to a full or finished extent.
  • Totally; in every way or as much as possible.
bizarre

US /bɪˈzɑr/

UK /bɪˈzɑ:(r)/

  • adjective
  • Odd or strange
  • Very strange or unusual, especially so as to cause interest or amusement.