Science & Technology Q&A for Kids (and others) [May 17, 2024]

Stephen Wolfram answers general questions from his viewers about science and technology as part of an unscripted livestream series, also available on YouTube here: https://wolfr.am/youtube-sw-qa Questions include: ​If you had to explain your "Why Does Biological Evolution Work? A Minimal Model for Biological Evolution and Other Adaptive Processes" blog to middle-school students, how would you begin that discussion? - What is convergent evolution? - Different genotypes come to the same phenotype—did I remember that right? - Regarding your blog, ​​I think it might be interesting to run rules toward each other from opposite sides and adaptively evolve them for length. Cells that both rules would affect are won by the rule with more width. - ​Do you think life existed before it did on Earth? - What is the importance of biodiversity and ecosystems in biological evolution? - ​​About life: follow the water. - ​​Did microorganisms have teachers? Who was the Einstein of microorganisms? - If you put A LOT of laser in ONE spot, would that create matter?