# What is the Purpose of Life? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxTnqKuNygE This video explores the connection between life, energy, and entropy. Scientists such as Michael Russell and Albert Szent-Györgyi describe life as a process that increases entropy, even though living organisms are highly organized. The video explains how energy from the Sun is gradually degraded as it moves through plants, animals, and cells, with each step increasing entropy and reducing the amount of useful energy. The process begins with photosynthesis. Plants capture solar energy and store it as sugar. Animals eat the sugar and convert it into ATP, which powers muscles and repairs cells. However, with each transformation, some energy is lost as heat. This demonstrates that life helps the universe move toward greater disorder, or higher entropy. The video also suggests that life may have started as complex chemical reactions that could use available energy and increase entropy, possibly in environments like ocean vents. It draws a parallel with stars, which also increase entropy by converting hydrogen into helium and releasing energy. In summary, both life and stars contribute to the universe’s tendency to increase entropy, and in a sense, life continues the work started by the stars. This video is part of a series on time and entropy, inspired by Sean Carroll’s book “The Big Picture,” which is available on Audible.