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At first, life on Earth was simple. Cells existed, operated, and reproduced as free-living
individuals. But at some point, things became more complicated once unicellular organisms
found a way to group and function collectively. This transition, known as multicellularity,
formed a pivotal event in the history of life on Earth. Multicellularity created the means to
increase biological complexity, which sparked an incredible diversity of organisms and
structures.

How life evolved from unicellular to multicellular organisms is still a mystery, though one thing
we do know is that this may have happened as a result of multiple independent events. To try to
understand what could have happened, Will Ratcliff at Georgia Tech has been carrying out long-
term evolution experiments in which multicellularity in yeast can spontaneously evolve and
grow. In this episode, Ratcliff talked to the Joy of Why podcast about what we know about
multicellularity, how his snowflake yeast model can investigate this, the surprises his
experiments have thrown up, and how he has responded to scientists who are cynical of his
approach.

How did Multicellular Life Evolve?

The Joy of Why

How did Multicellular Life Evolve?