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Video: Watch Bill Nye explain evolution with emoji in just 2 minutes

Published Dec 16th, 2014 6:15PM EST

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Although the theory of evolution is widely accepted within the scientific community, it still faces some resistance from religious fundamentalists who want children to learn that the entire universe was created over the span of a week roughly 6,000 years ago. To help make evolution simple to understand, the brilliant Bill Nye has put together a video explaining the very basics of evolution with the help of emoji.

MORE SCIENCE: NASA’s brilliant ‘All About That Space’ video is the best thing you’ll see today

In the video, Nye uses various emoji to represent molecules that began to self-replicate billions of years ago and eventually evolved into more and more complex organisms. The key, though, is that these molecules weren’t able to reproduce themselves perfectly, which over time lead to a wider diversity of organisms, from single-cell bacteria to multicellular organisms.

“The key to this is time,” Nye explains. “People used to think that the Earth was a few thousand years old. Then they realized it was at least a few hundreds of millions of years old. Well now, using radioactivity, we can tell you that the Earth is 4.54 billion years old. A lot can happen in 4.5 billion years!”

Check out the full video below.

Brad Reed
Brad Reed Staff Writer

Brad Reed has written about technology for over eight years at BGR.com and Network World. Prior to that, he wrote freelance stories for political publications such as AlterNet and the American Prospect. He has a Master's Degree in Business and Economics Journalism from Boston University.