Life and the Living Universe
Like Duolingo, but for Life and the Living Universe. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android

Key ideas in Life and the Living Universe
- Earth is a closed system for matter
- Sunlight provides the external energy needed for life
- New resources like water and minerals do not arrive from space
- Heat radiates back out into space
- Life depends on recycling existing atoms
- Matter stays inside while energy flows through
- The atmosphere acts as a physical barrier to meteors
- Gravity holds gases and liquids to the planet's surface
- Specific layers filter out dangerous solar rays
- Smaller planets with weak gravity often lose their atmospheres
- Distinguishing the protective roles of the atmosphere
- The atmosphere regulates temperature like a blanket
- The 'void' of space would otherwise suck away unanchored matter
- Identifying energy as the only external input/output
- Recognizing gravity's role in retaining the atmosphere and hydrosphere
- Distance from the sun determines surface temperature
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Life and the Living Universe the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
What is the primary source of external energy that enters Earth's system to keep life running?
Get it right to open this lesson and 35 more in the app.
Where Life and the Living Universe takes you
Explore how our planet breathes, how animals thrive, and how the laws of life on Earth connect us to the vast mysteries of deep space.
- 1
Earth as a Living System
- The Spaceship Earth Concept
- The Basic Ingredients for Life
- 2
The Animal Kingdom
- How Animals Solve Survival Problems
- The Language of Animal Behavior
- The Tree of Life
- 3
The Power of Plants
- Turning Sunlight into Food
- The Hidden World of Roots and Seeds
- 4
Nature's Interconnected Web
- The Flow of Energy
- Cycles of Renewal
- 5
The Cosmic Perspective
- The Neighborhood
- Searching for Other Earths
- The Future of Life in Space
5 sections · 12 units · 36 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
Life and the Living Universe is taught in the The Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
More Science on Tomo
Astrophysics and the Cosmos
Move beyond basic stargazing to understand the physical laws governing the birth of stars, the warping of spacetime, and the ultimate fate of the universe.
Time in Motion: Relativity and the Twin Paradox
Move beyond the basics of physics to understand why time isn't a constant, how speed alters aging, and why the famous Twin Paradox isn't actually a contradiction.
The Fabric of the Cosmos
Explore the extreme physics of the universe, from the warped space-time of black holes to the colossal structures of the cosmic web. This mastery course bridges the gap between basic astronomy and the complex relativistic mechanics that govern our reality.
How Matter Works: The Foundations of Chemistry
Discover the hidden logic of the physical world, from the dance of subatomic particles to the explosive energy of chemical reactions.
Astronomy and the Path to Astrophysics
Go beyond stargazing to understand the physics of the cosmos and the professional tools used to decode the universe. This course bridges the gap between an amateur hobbyist and a serious student of the stars.
The Weird World of Quantum Physics
Explore the strange rules that govern the universe at its smallest scale, where objects can be in two places at once and looking at something changes its behavior.
Start Life and the Living Universe today.
Download Tomo, search Life and the Living Universe, and play your first lesson in under a minute.