| MadSci Network: Evolution |
Christina, I'm pretty much in the primordial soup camp on this one. It's not clear exactly how it happened, but it is possible that life spontaneously assembled itself, probably in the form of self-reproducing RNA molecules, possibly assembled with the help of clay. Once you have your self- reproducing chemicals you basically have lift-off for evolution which seems to have refined the system to today's DNA - RNA - protein metabolism. The ideas are often vague and difficult to establish - there are many unknown factors such as the exact conditions on Earth at the time and the process took millions of years - longer than even the most generous research grant. However, as I said, there are a range of possible scenarios by which life could have begun. A detailed account is here: http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Lab/2948/orgel.html Leslie E. Orgel Less lengthy stuff here: http://library.thinkquest.org/C006238/eng/base.shtml?volcano http://www.geo.utep.edu/class_notes/3102_Miller/Lectures/Lecture_14.html Of course, you could always assume that God did it all; but far from simplifying things that only defers the questions. How do you think God originated? That's far less easy to answer than your question. Many would claim that it is not even a sensible question. Anyway, Occam's razor recommends keeping things simple (Why? Read Karl Popper) and so I'll vote for primordial soup over God on that basis. Other views are easily found on the net. Try these: http://www.theory-of-evolution.org/ http://www.arn.org/docs/news/deduveUCSD040501.htm I'd also recommend Danield Dennett's book, Darwin's Dangerous Idea and Richard Dawkins' The Blind Watchmaker for a purely evolutionary viewpoint. What do you think? It's a pretty open field with a wide range of possible answers. Ewen
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