What Are the Odds? The Earth's Improbable Journey Through Time

THE COSMIC STORYTELLER - ROBERT BLUESTEIN

The first image taken of the Earth and Moon together

Note: I began writing this in 2010 - constantly revising it and adding to it as new scientific studies would change out world view. The following shows as much travel in time as the years that have passed since, with me finally wrapping it up a full decade later in 2019. It covers both the beginning of the universe and the evolution of our own planet, complete with extinction events that will hopefully answer a few of the same questions I have had over the years. I have tried to explain matters of cosmology and earth science in a way that everyone can understand!

All humans are descended from one pair of ancestors, Rangi and Papa, who are also called Heaven and Earth. In those days, Heaven and Earth clung closely together, and all was darkness. Rangi and Papa had six sons: Tane-mahuta, the father of the forests and their inhabitants; Tawhiri-ma-tea, the father of winds and storms.

Maori Story of Creation, New Zealand

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

Genesis Chapter 1:2

The vast emptiness of space is difficult to picture—not because it is abstract, but because it is so immense that our intuition simply has no handles. The Astrophysics Department at the University of Toronto has even tried, in a literal sense, to fashion a physical model of the cosmos—using solar and rocky mass—because our best estimates, though carefully reasoned, still refuse to feel real.

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I wish to make a quick disclaimer. I am not a mathmatician. I barely got through Algrebra, and I was not required to take the most basic math courses in college because my chosen major was Medieval History. As I got older, I began to see math in a visual and colorful way. I unintentionally applied certain colors and shapes to numbers, and the combinations were almost as broad as the numbers themselves. It wasn't something I set out to do, but it evolved over time, and my grasp of complex mathematical formulas began to make a vivid picture of what used to intimidate me to no end. Even still, there are likely to be mistakes in my assumptions. If you happen to spot them, please help educate me and point them out. Now, as they say, on with the show...

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If our universe is roughly cube-shaped, then each edge is on the order of 30 billion light years. That makes the total volume about 2.7×10312.7×1031 cubic light years. And yet the matter we know how to count is almost unbelievably sparse: only about 4.2×10−214.2×10−21 percent of that space contains anything like matter at all.

A visualization may help. Picture the twenty tallest skyscrapers in the world. Now imagine dusting one corner of one building with a single tablespoon of dust. That—astonishingly—captures the spirit of what our best estimate says: that all the things we are, all the atoms that build worlds and stars and ourselves, are scattered through an expanse that is overwhelmingly empty.he Vast emptiness of space is hard to imagine.

The University of Toronto's Astrophysics department used solar and rock mass to make a model of the universe. Our best estimates often fall short. There are 30 billion light years on each side, If we consider the universe as a cube, each side measures 30 billion light years. This implies the universe encompasses approximately 2.7E+31 cubic light years. Only about 0.0000000000000000000042 percent of the universe contains any matter. To visualize this, imagine taking twenty of the world's tallest skyscrapers and covering one corner of one building with a tablespoon of dust; this would closely represent our best estimate of the universe.

And there we are—as Carl Sagan would say, "standing on a special, pale blue dot," a world small enough to be forgotten by the heavens, yet somehow remarkable enough to kindle life and keep it burning. It is an astonishing place. Almost—impossibly—so.

Because the story could so easily have ended differently. If a single crisis had lingered a little longer—if one extinction had not cleared the stage when it did—if one vast meteor had missed by the width of a breath, by just a fraction of a degree on the sky, then some sixty-five million years ago the script would have been rewritten. Instead of the world that makes room for us, Earth might still be dominated by dinosaurs.

We arrived not by certainty, but by escape—by surviving a chain of chances so improbable that it feels like a miracle. And here we are, having somehow defied the odds.

THE IMPACT OF CHARLES DARWIN

Charles Darwin once observed that the animals most likely to endure an extinction event "would not necessarily be the strongest, nor the most intelligent—but the ones most capable of adapting to a changing world." In that insight was something quietly radical. His book, On The Origin of Species, (1859) was not merely a scientific proposal; it was a new way of seeing.

The fundamental understanding of the world greatly excited the scientific community because it was difficult to dismiss. Darwin was simply asking the world to trust their eyes and rely on logical conclusion. His work established a concept, descent with modification as the dominant explanation for biological diversity. He shifted scientific thinking from a static view of life to an evolutionary one, replacing design-based explanations with natural and reasonable processes.

And it arrived at a moment when curiosity was accelerating. Only five years earlier, the skull of an ancient hominoid was discovered in Europe which could not be explained. It remained in a box at the University of Leipzig until an explanation could be provided.

In addition, Europe in general was caught in the accelerating momentum of exploration and colonization—was feeding the public with tales of distant lands and unfamiliar creatures. Evidence accumulated. Discoveries multiplied. As remnants of early human life came to light, the “staircase of life” began to branch into many directions at once. Knowledge traveled with people. Cultures moved, and with them went ideas.

Darwin also placed his finger on a fragile certainty of the time: the notion that each species was created perfect, complete, and unchanging. He found it implausible. Species, he argued, are not finished designs—they are evolving, and therefore inevitably imperfect. With a young naturalist’s bold imagination, he opened a Pandora’s box of questions: Where did life come from? How did it diversify? Could the astonishing variety of living things share a deeper origin?

And then, in the broadening of evolutionary thought, we see something unmistakably modern—science learning how to speak. New instruments of publication carry ideas farther, faster, and more openly than ever before. Knowledge no longer stays locked behind velvet ropes. It flows through wider public arenas, and when the flow is that abundant, it becomes almost unavoidable that revolutionary ideas will surface—and be heard.

Now consider what happens as this idea takes root in the real world. Modern science brings not only discovery, but the means of sharing it. And with so many new thoughts in circulation, revolutionary insights were bound to appear.

THE LINNEAN SOCIETY

So, on a sunny July day in London, a scientific organization—the Linnean Society—prepared to publish Darwin’s words twenty years after his voyage aboard the HMS Beagle. When they finally appeared, they spread quickly, easily, like the kind of news we take for granted now—read far and wide across the globe. If only Darwin had known what that moment would become.

But beneath all the history and communication lies a deeper question: how does it all connect? From space exploration to probing the deep sea, we stand at the beginning of understanding. And the strangest part is this: the more we learn, the more clearly we see how little we know—how vast the unknown still is, and how much there remains to discover.

And then, in the broadening of evolutionary thought, we glimpse something distinctive about our era—science learning how to communicate itself. Modern instruments of publication have made ideas travel faster, farther, and more openly. Methods of intellectual diffusion now span wider public arenas. With so many new ideas in circulation, it was almost inevitable that truly revolutionary ones would surface—and be heard.

Second Edition of Charles Darwin's ''Origin of Species''

Darwin writes of his observation of various birds he encountered in the Galapagos Islands. After touring the islands Darwin noticed something about Finches that were of a curiosity to him. They all had different beaks and lived in different environments. Darwin wondered just how this could happen with one species of bird. And then he uncovered a clue to one of the great secrets of life.

If the only food source on an island were hard and tough ground nuts, the finches grew short, sturdy beaks. If the only food source on an island is in the nectar of flowers, the finches grew long and graceful beaks. Darwin noticed these changes and put together his idea of Natural Selection. And it works because of DNA.

DNA is the molecular machine that ties all living things together. Think of it as our Biological Scripture or Bar-Code. And within each strand of DNA, is 100-Billion Atoms within. We are, each of us, a complex universe onto ourselves. The DNA is copied with extreme care. The birth of a new DNA molecule begins when an unwinding protein breaks apart the double helix. The rungs are broken apart and the molecular letters are separated. When a DNA strand breaks, the four basic building blocks, the letters of life are freed from their captivity, only to reproduce an identical new strand of DNA.

THE ROLE OF VIRUSES IN EVOLUTION

DNA is copied—again and again—through the bloodstream of generations. But copying is a kind of ceremony, and ceremonies are never perfectly smooth. Somewhere in the machinery of life, during that quiet shuffle of replication, a bead drops from the string. A mistake becomes a mutation. And then—here’s the drama—history tilts. The fate of a living thing can hinge on a small, accidental rearrangement, so tiny it would barely register on the fingertip of chance.

Now, consider a theory that dares to rearrange our picture of the past: that viruses may have helped steer cellular life itself. A virus sounds simple—almost trivial. But its behavior is cunning. It’s as if a microscopic, targeted automaton latches onto a host cell and injects instructions. Not just instructions to cooperate—but instructions that seize the cell’s own tools, bend its internal systems to viral ends, and then—when the job is done—often leave the host behind, wrecked from within.

How could anyone possibly test a claim like that, in a universe where biology is more interwoven than any labyrinth? Not by staring at a few genes as if they were isolated artifacts. No—this requires wrestling with scale. It requires the management of vast data, the disciplined harnessing of enormous genetic records. Using large-scale computational methods, researchers reported a staggering result: roughly 30% of protein adaptations since humans and chimpanzees diverged may have been driven by viral influence. An astonishing number. And because it’s so bold, it has detonated controversy—heated debate—ever since the findings were presented at the Allied Genetics Conference.

But if the argument is right, the implications reach far beyond controversy and conference rooms. It could help illuminate biological mysteries that have lingered like questions with no comfortable answer. Why do closely related species—creatures that perform similar core tasks, like duplicating DNA or constructing membranes—sometimes evolve differentmolecular machinery to carry out those nearly identical functions? If viruses can infiltrate, reshape, and redecorate genetic material over deep time, then they could be one of the forces that pushes life’s solutions into different directions—different routes through the same problem.

And then evolution—natural selection—becomes something more than a diagram in a textbook. It becomes vivid, almost musical, like colors multiplying on a canvas. Each mutation is a question life must answer. Adapt—or perish. A single small change in the genetic blueprint can tip the balance between skin and fur, between wings and arms, between arms and hands—between survival and extinction. Nature offers no guarantees. It offers only consequences.

And those consequences, relentless applied, write the next chapter.

UNINTENTIONALLY DISCOVERING NEW DISEASES IN ORDER TO FIND NEW CURES

DNA gets copied repeatedly—but the process is not guaranteed to be clean. Sometimes, in the quiet shuffle of replication, something slips. A mistake becomes a mutation. And the future of a living thing can hinge on that small, accidental rearrangement.

One of the most astonishing discoveries of 2014 had to do with the nature of viruses. By now, we know that viruses arent actually living things until they atttachto a host, helping to steer the course of cellular life itself. A virus is a deceptively simple concept with a complex behavior. It’s as if a tiny, targeted machine latches onto a host cell, then delivers its own instructions that hijack the cell’s machinery until the cell can no longer function as it once did, and often ends up destroyed from within.

In 2007, I was working in technology sales and two of my accounts were Bayer and Phizer. Multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical corporations actually have amazing business directives. Both companies are in the business of being "First-to-Market" with a treatment of a cure for new diseases. In order to do this, they establish the practice of creating unknown diseases.

To do this, they follow a process of target identification, multi-phase clinical trials and preclinical testing that usually involves animals. (This practice was supposed to have ended in 2012, though it seems likely it is still happening). The process can take 10-15 years, and while mainly beneficial, there is a real threat of creating a pandemic that spirals out of control through genetic modification. The pharmaceutical companies are banking on the idea that diseases cannot kill all of their hosts because it would go against the need to survive. This is a risky proposition that humanity as avoided up until this date of 2019.

How do we even begin to test claims like that across the immense complexity of biology? Not by looking at a few genes in isolation, but by managing the vastness of data. Using large-scale computational methods—algorithms applied to enormous genetic records—researchers reported a remarkable result: that roughly 30% of protein adaptations since humans diverged from chimpanzees may have been driven by viral influence. It’s an astonishing number. And because it is so bold, it has sparked debate—heated debate—since the findings were presented at the Allied Genetics Conference.

But the implications go beyond the headlines. The same line of evidence may help explain stubborn biological puzzles: why closely related species—species that perform similar core tasks like DNA replication or building membranes—often end up with different molecular machinery to do those nearly identical jobs. If viruses can reshape genetic material over time, then they could also be part of the reason life’s “solutions” diverge, even when the tasks are the same.

And this is where evolution becomes as vivid. as mathematical colors. Each mutation poses a question the organism must answer. Adapt—or perish. A tiny random change in the genetic blueprint can tip the balance between skin and fur, between wings and arms, between arms and hands; between survival and extinction. Nature keeps no promises. It keeps outcomes.

Darwin’s great idea was selection—the idea that environments do not merely allow life to exist; they sort it. Natural selection is not a gentle teacher. It is a gatekeeper. Species are limited by constraints, freed by opportunities, and shaped by what survives in the world that is there—right now—waiting to test every small change.

‘This theory is also strengthened by some few other facts in regards to in states; as by that comment case of closely allied, but distinct species when inhabiting distant parts of the world, and living under considerably different conditions of life while often retaining nearly the same instincts.

For example, we can begin to understand—through the principle of inheritance—why the thrushes of tropical South America align their nests with mud in the same distinctive way as the thrushes of Britain. We can also make sense of the striking pattern shared by hornbills in Africa and India: the extraordinary instinct to plaster their females into tree hollows, leaving only a small opening through which the males bring food, until the young have hatched.

And consider the male wrens of North America, who build “cock-nests” to roost in—only to find that this behavior mirrors the males of our own kitty-wrens, a habit so particular that it has no close parallel among other birds.

Finally it may not be a logical deduction, (but not to my imagination)it is far more satisfactory to look at such instances young cuckoo rejecting his foster brothers, ants making slaves of other ants and subsequently making them sterile, the larvae of ichneumonidae – feeding them with the live bodies of caterpillars--not as especially endowed are created instincts, but a small consequences of one general law leading to the advancement of all organic beings, namely that they multiply, vary, and let the strongest live and let the weakest die.’’

Biology, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physics, Astronomy and Cosmology are only a few of the sciences that we have to understand in order to get to the very topic of life itself. Darwin did so much with so little science that had he known now what he did not know then, it is hard to imagine what he could have accomplished.

Darwin Answers His Critics on Natural Selection

So how can life be so astonishingly different—and yet so intimately related? The answer is in diffusion, in the sharing of origins and the wandering of variations through time.

All of us, in some sense, began as single-celled organisms—chemistry first, biology second. Chemical reactions set the stage. Certain gases rose into our atmosphere as the first living systems found ways to change the air itself. Life, you might say, didn’t arrive fully formed; it spread, and as it spread, it kept carrying traces of where it had been.

Now imagine a step-ladder that suddenly loses a few rungs. Not entirely—just enough to matter. Then it’s replaced by a slightly different set of steps. You can still climb, but you’ll move through space in a new way. That’s a rough picture of organic biology: continuity without perfection, resemblance without identity.

DNA is damaged, and the missing section is patched. Often the repair is faithful—an almost exact copy. But sometimes the gap is filled differently, with a different group of nucleotides. A small difference, repeated over vast stretches of time, becomes a lineage of differences.

And among all mutations, perhaps the most consequential is also the simplest in concept: the capacity to become multicellular. One cell’s ambition becomes many cells cooperating—each part taking on a role, a job, a destiny. And if there was one deeper turning point, it may have been the ability to make and sustain energy—to harvest the world’s resources and keep complexity alive.

That’s how the same thread runs through the tapestry: not a single rigid design, but a continuous process of change—diffusion, variation, and survival—stitched across billions of years.

Two billion years ago, the universe’s chemistry performed an almost unbelievable pivot: photosynthesis began. And it began not as a grand design, but as a mutation—a small alteration in the workings of a living system, a chance that some primitive “green” bacteria could tap sunlight.

The first of them—pale hints of what would become life’s great engine—turned green, and in doing so they transformed atmospheres and destinies.

They were not only “producers of food.” They became recyclers. They helped fix nitrogen, they endured, they broke down what needed breaking. In the hydrothermal vents and cold seeps—worlds of darkness—bacteria kept converting dissolved compounds, taking things like hydrogen sulfide and methane and turning them into usable energy. Life, it seems, learned to live off whatever the world offered.

And then came replication—the great escape. Once bacteria could copy themselves reliably, they could also copy their variations. They could spread. They could diversify. And during copying, a startling by-product entered the bloodstream of planetary change: oxygen.

Oxygen makes everything possible today. But it was not always the case. It was once a poison—an acid rain for the living things that had evolved in its absence. Most life perished. But some life did not merely survive; it adapted, learning to use oxygen’s chemical power. With oxygen available, energy surged, evolution accelerated, and complexity grew teeth. Single cells clustered. Different cells took on different jobs. Organs appeared. Meanwhile, the chemistry of the planet itself kept mutating—slowly, relentlessly—like the background music changing under a song you didn’t know was still being composed.

And even today, the trees whisper the kinship. The way living things break down sugars is strikingly similar—because the instruction set for that task is basic, old, and shared across all life. Three and a half billion years of changes have accumulated, rearranging details—but beneath the differences is a deep universality: life built from instructions that are compatible enough to be inherited.

With countless living forms, many still unnamed, evolution became a master of improvisation. These include camouflage and shape-shifting strategies. Eyes tuned to the right kind of light. Ears tuned to the right kind of sound. These became ingenious hiding techniques to hunt, to avoid, and most of all, to endure.

Then mammals entered the stage—slowly at first. Around 250 million years ago, small, burrowing, night-hunting creatures began to carve out a niche. Their competition—reptiles—could save energy in the cool darkness, but their vision was poor. So smell became a superpower. We can see that in the anatomy: early mammals carried sinus structures that were a dramatic departure from fishy ancestors and a leap toward air-breathing, toward new sensing and new behavior.

For dozens of millions of years, mammals lived in the shadow. Dinosaurs began to outnumber them, and it looked as if mammals might become a footnote. Then the skies changed. In the Yucatán, 65 million years ago, a meteor struck—catastrophe so complete that it erased most of the living dominion of that world.

But even before that, the story had already traveled through darkness and radiation and redesign. Roughly 650 million years ago, some organisms were living near the planet’s surface. Exposed to bursts of gamma radiation, their genetic code changed—and single-celled life opened toward multicellularity. More cells meant more opportunities for specialization. Over time, the “cell that breathes” emerged, and then the “apparatus that digests” grew more efficient, pulling more energy from the food the world provided. Specialization built on specialization—layer upon layer—over hundreds of millions of years.

And then—around 500 million years ago—a small worm-like lineage split from the rapidly evolving multicellular world, adding the beginnings of an internal structure: an internal framework. Backbone. Jaw. Machinery for feeding and sensing. Lungs that could operate effectively on land. Watertight skin. Bigger brains. Sharper senses. And later, hands and color vision—along with the expanded ability to plan, to learn, to imagine.

One step became another. One adaptation unlocked the next possibility. And when the asteroid storm and its aftermath swept across the planet, the survivors were those small enough, hidden enough, flexible enough—creatures that could wait out the ruin beneath the surface, or adapt quickly enough to the new rules.

We no longer feel uncomfortable in the presence of such vast intricacy. Even still, our minds want a hand behind the curtain—someone or something assigned to make the gears turn. But it needn’t be an either/or demand. Creation and evolution need not be enemies in the same universe. You can look at the complexity—at this long chain of contingency, chemistry, inheritance, and adaptation—and still hold onto the sense that the whole undertaking is so vast, so precise, that only a power beyond ourselves could command it.

Because perhaps that is the most human lesson hidden inside biology: not that life had to happen the way it did, but that it did—again and again—through an unfolding process where chance supplies the variations, and the world decides which variations get to continue.

Our Life Giving Star - Are We Alone?

In the grand tapestry of existence, everything we perceive on this pale blue dot—our home—was forged in the crucible of the sun. It is the architect of our very being, generating the elements that compose us, the very atoms that dance within our bodies. Even the atoms that comprise our magnificent sun are descendants of the stellar dust of long-vanished stars. We inhabit an epoch suffused with the brilliance of stars, but like all things, this age too shall meet its twilight.

Within the heart of our sun, a cosmic battle rages—a delicate interplay between hydrogen fusion, which strives to tear the star asunder, and the relentless grip of gravity, which binds it together.

This is a dynamic standoff, a power struggle that sustains the luminous ball of gas that dominates our sky. Hydrogen atoms, naturally repellent to one another, are forced into proximity by immense pressures, and when they collide with sufficient force, they fuse, releasing an extraordinary torrent of energy. Though this fusion occurs in mere fractions of a second, it births helium, a new element destined to persist for billions of years, until, at last, iron emerges—a harbinger of the star’s demise. The presence of iron upon our planet whispers the tale of our sun's decline; once it exhausts its hydrogen, the final act will commence, for hydrogen—the first element to ignite—will be the last to burn.

The sun, our radiant progenitor, has not remained static throughout our planet’s existence. Born in cataclysmic violence and destined to die in explosive grandeur, it is the source of the building blocks that compose all matter. In 2004, NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope embarked on a mission to unveil the secrets of the nebulae, peering through the veil of infrared light to reveal the swirling cauldrons of hydrogen gas, where gravity and time conspire to birth new stars.

As gravity compresses this primordial hydrogen, it heats the gas to staggering temperatures, igniting a process that sends hydrogen spewing from the poles of a nascent star. When the core temperature reaches a staggering fifteen million degrees, gas atoms fuse, unleashing colossal amounts of energy.

Thus, a star is born, illuminating the cosmos for eons, casting its light upon the celestial rocks drawn to its gravitational embrace.

In the infrared realm, Spitzer reveals the universe in a new light, mapping the thermal signatures of distant worlds. It allows us to glimpse the winds swirling on exoplanets, revealing speeds that can exceed six thousand miles per hour. Such observations remind us of our nearest neighbor, which appears as a nightmarish landscape—a hellish planet scorched by its proximity to a relentless star.

Nearly five billion years ago, a newborn star existed amidst a maelstrom of cosmic debris. Gravity orchestrated a relentless dance of collisions, culminating in the formation of our planet, which spun lifelessly in the sun’s orbit.

4.5 billion years ago, Earth was a seething sphere of molten rock, cloaked in a toxic atmosphere of carbon dioxide and ammonia. It was then that Thea, a rogue planet hurtling through space, struck Earth with cataclysmic force, reshaping its surface and forever altering its destiny.

The Spitzer Telescope gave us our first glimpse of what happens inside the Nebulae when a star is born

Our sun, with an estimated seven billion years of hydrogen still at its disposal, will one day expand, its core becoming a volatile cauldron of instability. As hydrogen dwindles, helium will transform into carbon, and the sun’s outer layers will collapse.

In this cataclysm, the universe will witness the most violent explosions known to science, birthing new elements—gold, silver, oxygen, iron—and from them, life as we know it.

At the center of a white dwarf lies a core of carbon, a colossal diamond forged under unimaginable pressure and heat, a remnant of stellar birth and death. In the aftermath of a massive explosion, blast waves of cosmic dust race into the void, while Earth reels from the impact. In just a millennium, gravity will take the debris, spinning it into a ring that will eventually become our moon. Such cosmic events must have painted the sky with a spectacular display.

As Earth cools, solid rock begins to form, and the vast geologic time scale unfolds—a measure of epochs that dwarfs our human understanding of years. We live our lives by the rhythm of days and nights, while the planet’s history spans millions and billions of years.

On a clear night, one might behold three thousand stars. With a simple pair of binoculars, another three thousand come into view. Even a modest telescope reveals tens of thousands of celestial bodies. Our sun, a blazing sphere of superheated gas, dominates this cosmic panorama, but it is but a small player in the vast expanse of the universe. Stars burn in a kaleidoscope of colors, and some are bound in pairs, dancing around one another. What are the odds?

We are but a single planet in a minuscule corner of the cosmos, navigating the vastness of space. As we search for other worlds, none present the unique tapestry of atmospheric chemistry that nurtures life here. Consider the planet WOS-12B, a behemoth orbiting perilously close to its star, absorbing light and radiating an unbearable heat.

It is a world of extremes, where titanium oxide erupts from its core, a testament to the violent forces at play. Yet, as we gaze into the darkness, we find ourselves isolated, pondering our existence amidst a universe that seems indifferent to our plight.

THE ODDS OF CREATION

WOS-12B is not alone; many planets endure such fury, battered by supersonic winds in environments hostile to life. They are the nomads of the cosmos, drifting through the vastness, while we seek out potential homes for life, often instead discovering bizarre and inhospitable worlds. Quoro-7B, a molten furnace at four thousand seven hundred degrees, rains fire upon its surface, a stark reminder of the violence inherent in planetary formation. Planets of this size are almost never inside such a tight orbit.

This is one of the most violent environments we have encountered, and yet it is ripping apart. Here we stand, on the cosmic shores of a huge ocean, and we are left with an inhospitable landscape unfit for life.

WOS-12B is not alone as many planets endure such fury, battered by supersonic winds in environments hostile to life. They are the nomads of the cosmos, drifting through the vastness, while we seek out potential homes for life, often instead discovering bizarre and inhospitable worlds. Quoro-7B, a molten furnace at four thousand seven hundred degrees, rains fire upon its surface, a stark reminder of the violence inherent in planetary formation.

It's another alien world, a small rock-like planet called Quoro-7B, are potential homes for life. But instead, we find more weird and nightmarish planets. Disappointed, we continue to search for life. This planet is two-hell's in one.

Its surface is a liquid furnace at 4700 degrees. Lava vaporizes the atmosphere and when cooler air comes in, it began to rain fire from the side. The locked planet has one side facing the sun and one side facing the darkness all the time. This planet is the remains of a gas giant.

The heavens were nothing more than Hydrogen gas, spinning and turning until they became stars. Half-a-Billion years after the Big Bang, Hydrogen atoms were moving so rapidly that they collided. And when they collided, they became Helium Atoms. The collisions were rapidly changing the molecular structure of atoms until they became Argon. And Argon’s atoms began to collide so much and with such great speed that the next element was born, Krypton.

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BIG BANG OR BIG MISS?

The James Webb telescope created quite a stir when it first began recording images. Almost immediately, it found more distant galaxies than there should be. This could have lead to some revolutionary changes in our standard model. More curiously, there looked to be a weird imbalance in the spin directions of ancient galaxies, implying that the Big Bang might just be a Big Miss.

The theory began to gain traction. Our current understanding is that after the Big Bang, the universe went through a period known as the dark ages. During this period the first light of the cosmos had faded, and the first stars and galaxies hadn’t yet formed. Webb proved to be so sensitive that it could see some of the youngest galaxies that formed just after the dark ages.

We would expect those young galaxies to be less numerous and less developed than later galaxies. But the Webb observations have found very redshifted and younger galaxies that are both common and surprisingly mature.

The excitement this created among the scientific community spread quickly. However - The Big Bang theory has not been disproven and remains the overwhelmingly supported scientific model for the origin of the universe. While observations, such as those from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), constantly refine our understanding, they have not invalidated the core concept that the universe was once smaller, hotter, and expanding. 

The Big Bang theory is supported by the Cosmic Microwave Background (the afterglow of the universe's birth), the expansion of the universe (Hubble Law), and the abundances of light elements. It is a highly robust framework that explains how the universe came to be.

Although the Big Bang theory cannot be proven with 100% certainty, every major test has supported it rather than refuted it. There are changes to the way the theory itself has evolved over time, and it may need "tweaking" when new physics are involved, but this does not invalidate the entire, well-documented model. There are limits to our knowledge, and we would be arrogant to think otherwise. Even still - the Big Bang theory does not explain what happened at the exact moment of the singularity, as current physics (general relativity) breaks down there. 

Even Einstein initially rejected the Big Bang theory, preferring a static universe, but later embraced it after Edwin Hubble's 1928 evidence of expanding galaxies. He famously described the initial expansion concept as "the most beautiful and satisfactory explanation of creation."

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A VOLATILE BEGINNING

The Big-Bang sequence began with a hot, dense singuilaritythat repidly expanded and cooled. Through stages of inflation, quark-lepton formation, and nucleosynthesis, energy converted into matter (protons, neutrons, electrons) later forming hydrogen/helium gas, stars, galaxies, and planetary systems. All of this happened within just 5 minutes.

Bursts of energy ultimately created Carbon, Nitrogen and Calcium. But these stars pay an enormous price – they explode and spew star-dust blasting through space. Sometimes the star dust swirls around another body that has a strong gravitational pull. Over hundreds of millions of years, the swirling matter and debris is sucked into the spinning sphere. If you can imagine this, then you have just imagined the creation of the earth. Whether by design or luck, or a combination thereof, the earth faced insurmountable odds in the vacuum of space.

In the beginning, the heavens were naught but clouds of hydrogen gas, swirling and coalescing to form stars. Half a billion years after the Big Bang, hydrogen atoms collided with such fervor that they birthed helium. This relentless chain reaction continued, giving rise to elements like argon and krypton through bursts of stellar energy. And yet, these stars pay a heavy toll; they explode, scattering the remnants of their existence across the cosmos. Over eons, this stardust gathers into swirling masses, succumbing to gravity’s embrace, ultimately forming Earth—a miracle wrought from insurmountable odds.

In its infancy, Earth was a barren, lifeless rock, much as you might envision the moon today. Yet, as time flowed, volcanoes erupted, continents collided, and the tremendous energy released in these cataclysms reshaped our world. This energy, felt in the tremors of earthquakes, altered the atmosphere, infusing it with the very building blocks of life itself. In this primordial era, megastorms raged, and with the moon’s proximity, colossal tidal waves swept the planet. Amidst the lightning and thunder, water began to form, a life-giving liquid that would eventually cradle the first stirrings of life.

Three point eight billion years ago, our planet entered a new and tumultuous phase. Meteors rained down, delivering minerals and amino acids that mingled in the primordial soup, the crucible from which life would spring forth.

We find ourselves in an interstellar golden age, a fleeting moment in the vast timeline of the universe. Never before has the cosmos been so conducive to human life, as beautiful stars illuminate our night sky, remnants of long-dead giants that birthed the planets. What are the odds that all of this—life, existence—would emerge from the belly of a dying star? Our time here is but a blink in the cosmic eye, a brief summer in the seasons of interstellar evolution.

All of this invites us to ponder a profound question: What are the odds that the impossible would not only be possible, but that we would flourish? What are the odds indeed?

Human Beings and Time

Time presents a fascinating conundrum, one that has eluded our full understanding for centuries. Charles Darwin, in his exploration of natural selection, lacked the insights of Albert Einstein. Had he been privy to such knowledge, he would have recognized a fundamental distinction that sets humans apart from other animals: our capacity to conceptualize and define time. Our minds capture events as snapshots, yet time itself is a boundless dimension, encompassing all moments that have ever existed up to this very instant. In Einstein's framework, the entirety of time is laid out before us; our experiences of life's events are uniquely filtered through our individual perspectives.

Space and time serve as the canvas upon which our personal experiences are painted. Time is relentless, perpetually moving forward, while our brains are equipped to perceive only the present. If time were to unfold all at once, could we not manipulate it and alter our past? The concepts of past, present, and future arise from our cognitive processing of the now. The present reflects our most recent information, while the past comprises our accumulated experiences. Historians analyze patterns through time to derive insights into our current reality.

In the natural world, the stakes are even higher. Natural selection operates as a continual computation, one that determines survival in a world fraught with challenges. Even the most intelligent animals possess a basic understanding of time. For our evolution as a species, it was imperative to develop a perception of both the present and the future. This ability allowed us to organize time effectively, enabling planning, prediction, and the execution of complex tasks, such as hunting—an essential survival skill.

The potentialities of time and destiny are indeed staggering. Imagine, for instance, that you wish to enjoy a cup of tea before bed. No action you take in the moment can alter what has transpired in your past. Events earlier in the day must have unfolded as they did; otherwise, the very act of savoring that tea would not be possible. You may believe you possess the freedom to choose, but in reality, the constraints of causality dictate that the past must remain consistent with the sequence of events that led you to this moment.

Consider the art of cooking. A skilled chef understands the precise ingredients required to create a dish. If one intends to prepare pumpkin soup, they know the necessity of pumpkin, nutmeg, allspice, salt, pepper, chicken broth, and perhaps cream. Deviating from this recipe results in an inferior product—something that cannot even be classified as pumpkin soup. The final dish exists in the chef's mind before the preparation begins; they possess an understanding of the ingredients and the processes involved. This abstract thinking about time and consequence is a hallmark of humanity. But can foreknowledge of the future alter the past?

The nature of time itself remains enigmatic. Yet, all observations suggest that time flows in one direction—forward. The past is but a fleeting moment, preserved in our memories. However, if we accept time as a dimension, as Einstein proposed, then the past must still exist in some form—though presently beyond our reach. Perhaps, in the future, our cognitive evolution will enable us to perceive time in three or even four dimensions. It is conceivable that future iterations of humanity will possess enhanced capabilities to understand the fabric of time.

The next evolution of our species may prioritize survival in ways that contemporary humans seem to overlook, often pursuing paths of self-destruction. The events of our past leave indelible marks, and in time, we may learn to intertwine past, present, and future, allowing for meaningful change and progress. This notion underscores the fact that life is a continuous process of evolution, adaptation, and growth. We are, indeed, part of a larger narrative, one that unfolds with each passing moment..

And then we come up against the issue of time. Darwin didn't have the influence of an Einstein to help him, but if he did, he would have realized one of the key things that separate man from the animals. This is the ability to define time. Our brains are able to take snapshots of events, but time is a dimension that really has no limitation. All of time already exists up to now. In Einstein's description of time - all of the events are already laid out. We experience life's events uniquely from one another based on our own observation. Our own experiences are angled specifically to each perspective.

Space and time are snapshots of our individual experiences. Time never stops, but our brains can only determine the present. If all of time were to happen at once, couldn't we manipulate time and change our past? Past, present, and future are the result of what our brains process as NOW. The present is the most recent information, and the past is what we have experienced. Historians use trends in history to determine the present.

In the natural world, the challenges are more severe. Natural selection is the computation of the present in order to survive. Even the most intelligent animals have a rudimentary idea of time. But in order to evolve, our brains had to gain the perception of the Present and the Future in order to organize time so that we could plan, predict, and execute the act of hunting. And this is a key for survival.

Consider cooking a fine meal. Good cooks know what spices are needed to make the finished product. If you are going to make a Pumpkin Soup, you KNOW the ingredients you need. You know you need pumpkin, nutmeg, allspice, salt, pepper, chicken broth and cream of wheat. If you put anything else into the soup, you get a bad Pumpkin Soup. In fact, you don't get anything that could be actually called a Pumpkin Soup. The finished product has been made before you even begin, because you KNOW what it will take, and you even understand the processes of preparation. The ability to think in abstracts such as time is unique to the human species, So, can knowing the future change the past?

The direction of time itself is a mystery. But everything we observe points to time only having one direction - forward. The past is but a moment which has become a snapshot in our memory. But if time IS a dimension like Einstein says, then the past still exists - somewhere. It remain out of reach for us now, but perhaps our brains will evolve into something that allows us to see in three and perhaps four dimensions. Perhaps there are more species of humans still yet to appear. Imagine if they will have much higher capabilities of understanding time.

The next species will do what it can to survive, unlike modern humans, who seem to want to do what it takes to destroy itself. What takes place in our past becomes imprinted somewhere, and one day we may learn to weave the past and present and future together and actually positively change for the better. This is to indicate that all of life is still evolving, still adapting, still growing.

What Determines Life?

Observe your surroundings. Everything you see and every breath you inhale is crafted from the same cosmic material. The universe, with its vastness, consists of countless chemicals, appearing in different proportions and adhering to the unchanging laws of nature. These fundamental elements come together to form living beings, creating a biological marvel that links us to the cosmos. We are not separate; we are intricately connected to all that exists.

How can life, in its remarkable complexity, arise from such seemingly random processes? Are there other worlds, akin to our own, awaiting discovery? When we gaze upward, we confront the majesty of trillions of stars, the vastness of space, and a singular, profound question: Is there life out there, somewhere? To date, we have cataloged over 700 exoplanets, yet none mirror our own Earth. We are a rarity among the celestial bodies. While countless exoplanets orbit distant stars, none possess the ideal distance and rotational dynamics necessary to sustain life as we know it.

In the aftermath of the Big Bang, the universe emerged as a vast cloud of hydrogen gas. From this primordial soup, matter began to coalesce, forming stars. Within the cores of these ancient stars, hydrogen atoms were compressed and fused, giving birth to helium and releasing immense energy. Each of us is a testament to these stellar forges, composed of atoms born from the chemical richness of exploded stars—an inheritance from the cosmos that peppered the galaxies with the essence of life.

Consider the journey of these complex atoms, now scattered throughout the universe, each one a remnant of cosmic events that have shaped the very fabric of existence. One such cloud of gas collapsed under its own gravity, giving rise to our sun—a star that would illuminate our solar system and nurture the formation of Earth.

In its early state, our planet was a formidable environment. While the universe began to adopt a more uniform appearance, a unique transformation was occurring beneath the surface of the young Earth. Life distinguishes itself from inanimate objects through three fundamental characteristics: the ability to metabolize energy, a protective outer shell, and a genetic blueprint for reproduction. These elements form the core instructions for living beings.

At the heart of this biological engine lies DNA—a complex molecule that serves as our unique blueprint, filled with diverse traits. Encased within lipid membranes, DNA is safeguarded, forming the protective shell essential for life. The emergence of the first cells was a remarkable chemical reaction, relying on just twenty amino acids, a handful of nucleotides for crafting DNA and RNA, and a few lipids.

For much of history, it was believed that life arose solely from biological reactions. However, in the 1950s, chemist Stanley Miller conducted a groundbreaking experiment that revealed a different truth. By combining water, volcanic gases, and organic materials, then introducing an electrical spark—simulating lightning—he produced a foul-smelling liquid rich in the very chemicals necessary for life. This created amino acids, a pivotal moment that began to bridge the gap between theology and science.

If Miller's findings were accurate, could these molecular building blocks exist in space, predating the formation of Earth? In the 1960s, a meteorite fell in Australia, a stunning event that revealed the same distinctive smell as Miller’s lab concoction. Upon examination, this ancient rock was found to contain amino acids, fatty molecules, and even the fundamental components of DNA—signs that the building blocks of life are indeed scattered throughout the cosmos.

While possessing these building blocks is crucial, they still require assembly.

Over four billion years ago, the young Earth was an inhospitable realm, a cauldron of noxious chemicals. It housed land and oceans, yet the environment was far from welcoming. The newly formed moon loomed large in the sky, exerting powerful gravitational forces that shaped the tides. Volcanic gases filled the atmosphere, and extreme temperature fluctuations created rock pools of steaming water. As the waters receded, concentrations of molecules were forced into interaction.

Within these primordial rock pools, lipid molecules floated freely. In the concentrated environment, these fatty molecules began to adhere to one another, forming membranes that would give rise to proto-cells. As the pools evaporated, these lipids encased the building blocks for life, creating protective barriers around essential proteins. Yet, the ultraviolet rays from the sun posed a grave threat, capable of destroying any DNA that emerged from these rock pools.

It seems that life needed a refuge, a place shielded from the harsh rays of the sun. The early environment was fraught with challenges, but evolution found a way to harness energy. The manner in which we utilize energy is what drives the complexity of life as we know it.

Deep beneath the ocean's surface lie hydrothermal vents—enigmatic oases of life thriving in extreme conditions. When we explored these vents in the 1990s, we were astonished to discover ecosystems unlike anything we had witnessed before. Here, in a realm of perpetual volcanism, we were reminded of the inhospitable conditions that once prevailed on our planet.

The moon, once significantly larger in the sky, covered nearly a fifth of the evening horizon. Even now, it continues to drift away from Earth. The tides were more extreme, and the planet was subjected to intense radiation. In contemplating the origins of life, we must acknowledge how desolate our world once was.

PANSPERMIA

The concept of panspermia suggests that life may have originated elsewhere in the universe and arrived on Earth via comets or meteorites. This hypothesis raises intriguing questions: Are the origins of life universal? Do the laws governing chemical reactions and physics apply uniformly across the cosmos?

Imagine a cosmic game of pinball—4.7 billion years ago, a barrage of asteroids bombarded our planet, a cataclysmic event that reshaped its destiny. But Earth was not alone in this cosmic upheaval. Mars, with its evolutionary advantage, could have harbored hardy bacteria nestled within its rocks. These microbial pioneers were pre-packaged and ready for interstellar travel.

In this vast universe, we are all part of a magnificent story, born from the ashes of stars and connected through the intricate web of life. As we continue to explore the cosmos, we may yet uncover the answers to the profound questions that bind us to the stars.

Bacteria are astonishingly tough. In space—or really, anywhere that would annihilate the delicate—life has a trick up its sleeve: spores. When conditions turn hostile, bacteria don’t simply die. They pack themselves away, sealing a living core inside a protective shell, slipping into dormancy long enough to ride out extremes. And remarkably, we’ve found evidence of bacteria-like life reaching back 250 million years—a record written in endurance.

But even so, that’s not a story about the beginning. It’s a story about survival.

We still face the oldest question: How did life begin at all? Whether organisms arrived from elsewhere in the universe—or whether they emerged from Earth itself—there had to be a transition from chemistry into something that could replicate, something that could evolve. Between “lifeless” and “you and me,” there’s an ocean of oblivion.

And yet, today, the biosphere is dazzling. Every creature on Earth traces its ancestry back to a single cell—a tiny beginning that expanded into forests, oceans, minds, and music.

Consider something most of us never really marvel at: DNA. Humans share a significant fraction—about half—of our genetic material with something as humble as a grapefruit. DNA is not merely “a code”; it is an instruction system. It’s the operating system of life, a set of informational rules that tells cells how to build copies of themselves. And because DNA can be altered—through mutations—life gains the raw material for novelty. Change becomes possible. Evolution becomes inevitable.

Now, far below the ocean’s surface, a quiet transformation took place. Single-celled organisms began to cooperate, eventually giving rise to multicellular life. Along coastal regions, immense communities of bacteria formed structures—stromatolites—that slowly learned to harvest sunlight. Through photosynthesis, they converted light into chemical energy, and in doing so, they released a byproduct into the world: - oxygen.

At first, oxygen was not a gift—it was a force, reacting with everything it could find. It rusted the oceans, locked into minerals, and sank to the seafloor as iron-rich deposits. But over time, oxygen accumulated in the atmosphere. Today it makes up about 21% of Earth’s air.

Then came a long era—nearly unimaginably long—when physics and biology together reshaped the planet. Over the next two billion years, rising oxygen and changing Earth conditions pushed the world toward greater complexity. The day lengthened—eventually to roughly sixteen hours. And for a stretch of 1.5 billion years ago, complex life still didn’t exist.

Meanwhile the planet was changing in slow motion. Earth’s surface was broken into tectonic plates, shifting and colliding, quietly rearranging continents, oceans, and climates. In the middle of the cosmic silence, Earth was becoming a place where life could do more than persist.

It was becoming a place where life could begin to multiply its possibilities -until, eventually, something astonishing happened.

Life continued. And then—somehow—it learned to adapt.

Heat from the core of our earth rose through the mantle and disrupted the continents. Volcanoes erupted throughout the earth. The crust of the earth was ripping from its ocean floor. There was as many as three thousand volcanoes throughout the planet, all of them erupting at the same time. Spewing gasses and smoke throughout the earth's atmosphere, the skies soon became dark.

Carbon dioxide and water mixed to form acid rain, which was deposited in the rocks of Earth. The cooling of the Earth only took two thousand years, but it soon dropped to -50°F. The water turned into walls of ice, spreading away from the poles and then to the equator. The more ice that was made, the greater the reflection of the sunlight back into space, and the colder the Earth became. It was a cyclical journey that was smothered with ice.

With billions of tons of carbon dioxide, there was nothing to absorb the gas, so its excess was belched into the atmosphere. After fifteen million years, the ice began to melt and released heat. Then a series of chemical reactions occurred, trapping the oxygen within the ice. This chemical would be known as hydrogen peroxide.

Oxygen removed methane from the atmosphere - but the result was a rapid cool-down of the Earth. The cooling was so rapid that ice began to develop on the surface. It spread quickly and soon the planet was covered in a huge layer of ice and permafrost. It eventually became a huge snowball that would last 200 million years. Then, in our next step on the critical journey of life, volcanoes began to spew greenhouse gases which slowly warmed the Earth, melted the snowball, and rapidly exploded life here on Earth. We exist because we learned how to use oxygen and metabolize energy. Imagine the incredible odds that life faced in its early development.

There are three basic processes of our present-day existence. The first one is the creation of life, the second is the rise of complex life, and the third is the rise of intelligent life. The stage for simple life is abundant throughout the universe. But beyond this, the recipe calls for an oxygen-rich world. Mars is known to have manganese oxides—a fundamental block for human life. When it reacts with oxygen, it develops a "rock-varnish" or a coating on the surface of the rock. They exist all over the Earth, and now it seems as if we have found the same rock on Mars.

Ultraviolet waves began to cook DNA with a force a thousand times stronger than it is today. This intense radiation would have destroyed life as it began to form. It seems as if the beginnings of life had to form in the shade. The cauldron of our early years as a planet would have prohibited the development of life as we would come to know it.

Cosmic Companionship

Our closest celestial neighbor, a world that dances in the same cosmic ballet as our own Earth, reveals a remarkably similar chemical tapestry. It is only reasonable to contemplate that if two planets, cradled in the embrace of the same solar system, are forged from the same elemental "star-stuff," then the notion of loneliness in this expansive universe may not be as overwhelming as it initially appears.

The Enigma of Life

However, the investigation into the existence of intelligent life extends well beyond simple chemistry. It delves into the profound depths of consciousness and the core of existence itself, urging us to explore the mysteries that connect us to the cosmos and to each other.

Imagine, if you will, a time 450 million years in the past, when our beloved Earth was a shimmering oceanic paradise, a cradle for a myriad of extraordinary life forms. This vibrant world was on the cusp of becoming a magnificent menagerie, a veritable zoo of diverse creatures. Yet, as we gaze back through the eons, we uncover a history fraught with cataclysmic events that have continually tested the resilience of life as we know it. We stand on the precipice of understanding just how fragile our planet truly is, and the staggering odds stacked against the continuity of life here today. Mass extinctions, those great upheavals of existence, are not merely relics of the past; they are likely harbingers of the future. The eternal questions of who survives and who perishes echo through the corridors of time, beckoning us to seek answers.

Earth's First Extinction Event

475 Million years ago, during the Ordovician Age, the earth looked very different than it does today. The surface of the planet was barren and devoid of any life whatsoever. There were few mountains yet, just a series of bleak rolling hills. The oxygen level was far beneath today’s levels. But under the water, it was a thriving, growing and dynamic world. Creatures of dramatic sizes and curious shapes were thriving in vast shallow oceans called Trans-Pantreatic Sea. The vast amount of trilobite fossils found throughout the earth would suggest that it was a world teeming with life to such a degree that the waters needed a mechanism with which to clean it.

The planet is made up of two very large land masses and is warm and wet, with sea levels higher than they are now. The oxygen level is very low during the Ordovician Age and almost all living things were under water. The surface world was desolate but under water, the teaming of life was a rich seascape.

The warm sunlit waters are home for readily evolving sunlight. Trilobites took care of animal waste and were related to a modern day ants.

Astrapsis

Astraspis was one of the very first fish to navigate the waters. This lowly creature was just six inches long and wasn't efficient as far as life goes. They were slow and cumbersome in the waters. But they had one unique adaptation that set them apart from everything else in the seas. It was the first animal with a spine that was protective of a central nervous system. Although it is difficult to fathom, all living vertebrates today owe their existence to this tiny fish that could have fit into the palm of your hand.

This creature endures cold water better than any other on the planet. Astrapsis also could adapt to the changes. Eventually, the first fish develop Jaws. This remarkable adaptation allowed them to take down prey, chew various types of food, and eventually allow hominids to speak.

On the other end of the spectrum was a Straight Nautiloid, the great white shark of its time. It was a voracious hunter that, in a strange twist of genetic mutation, swam much better backwards. They routinely ate meat. It was an incredibly intimidating oceanic beast that was twenty feet long and remarkably swift in the water. But still, they were routinely challenged by Sea Scorpions (Eurypterids) who were extraordinary in their nastiness. The largest arthropod on the planet, they were six to seven feet long and covered with bristlecone claws.

Straight Nautiloid

You can imagine scorpions of the earth today and then see them as underwater creatures that weighed as much as 300 lbs. I somehow don't think a leisurely trip to the beach would be advisable. These scorpions were ruthless in their attacks on one another, and as primary predators of the era, they loved the vast variety of food sources found at the bottom of the ocean. Eurypterids were fast and agile in the seas, and they were certain to be at the top of the Ordovician Age.

It would have been a scary world for humans to inhabit. Most of these creatures were visually intimidating, so much so that even their fossils are scary. There was no grace or beauty in their hunting, as you might see in a lion or a cheetah hunting down its prey. There was nothing majestic like a falcon diving 200 miles per hour to snare a rodent in its talons.

There was no strategy like the killer whales use today when they separate their whale calve-counterparts from a protective pod. There was certainly not the long endurance hunt that you might witness by hyenas in the African Kalahari. These creatures of the Ordovician Age were voracious consumers, killers without a plan, and their only purpose was to kill, or be killed. This would have been a very hard thing for we humans to view without feeling a chill of fear and the apprehension of instant death that would befall these creatures.

These two creatures were often in a life-or-death struggle for survival. In fact, in 2001, a fossil was found with a Nautili and a Eurypterid tangled in a life and death struggle, killed at exactly the same time, with each one devouring on another. The violence at their moment of death is indicative of the gruesome way of life that the earth experienced in its early days. The more we understand about these things, the greater our comprehension of how life got to where we today.

Coral reefs began to die, and as the weeks went by, the dead marine life began to cloud up the waters. A lack of food, rising death rates, and the lack of sunlight—and the whole food chain topples. The ultraviolet radiation is most intense in the tropics. Within three months, the gamma ray has altered the planet into a morphology of death. Reproduction seems to have come to a halt, perhaps due to the changes in the way light was absorbed by the creatures.

Famine is inescapable. Every species is threatened with extinction. If these creatures do not survive, we would probably not be here today. It took less than eight months to shatter the molecules of our atmosphere into a witch's brew of poisonous gases. Nitrogen dioxide (smog) causes a plummeting of the Earth's temperatures worldwide. For the coiled nautiloid, this spells trouble. Eggs aren't forming as they should, and mortality is higher than their birth rate. But because their shells are strong and spiraled, they go deeper into the water and thrive.

In Mexico, a once vibrant habitat became a dingy graveyard. The coral reefs grow in place and unlike the spiraled nautiloid, these organisms couldn't relocate. The reefs died. Intense sunlight poured in, followed by a thick smog which caused a sudden drop in temperatures. Snow piled up in the poles, creating a new ice age. Ocean water was sucked into the ice, causing a lower sea level, draining the pools of inland waters. Huge icebergs rolled over the dead coral reefs, and the sea levels contributed to a forced migration of the animals that managed to survive.

Ten years after the ray hit the planet, violent weather caused a never-ending wave of category five hurricanes. Reef animals were smashed against the rocks, and those that had any strength left were driven deeper. The drive to safety caused the long nautiloid to crack under the pressure. Year-round violent storms smacked the earth. Today we find fossils of many of the Ordovician creatures far inland.

The Sea-Scorpion also survived the changes. They took the place of the Straight Nautiloid. The ice eventually melted, causing another drastic change in development. Straight nautiloids made a surprising comeback, but they are smaller and less aggressive than before. The Sea Scorpions began to exhibit strange behavior now. They were dragging their kill to the shore. Inside the sea-scorpions were a pair of lungs, which developed due to the decline in water level. An interesting thing occurred with the genetic improvement of vision. Sea Scorpions had very primitive eyes. Sea Scorpions had the capacity to make out shapes, seeing the difference between light and darkness. But the image was blurry. By taking their victims ashore, their vision gradually improved. Furthermore, more evolutionary traits began to develop as well.

377 million years ago, animals were thriving in this primeval world. Then another extinction event occurred. A relentless assault on the planet was developing inside the planet. Deep inside the earth, a super-plume of lava composed of two million square miles erupted. The planet was a warm, wet world of islands in an endless ocean. Plants covered the land for the first time in history.

My fascination with history goes beyond the written word. Everything, it seems, has a beginning. In almost every case, we have learned to identify a common origin. But in the history of our planet, there is much debate. How did we get here in the first place? What makes the earth so special, so unique, that it could be randomly selected for sophisticated life? We went through five-six extinction events that threatened our very existence.

The history of life on this planet have been outlined but there have been tantalizing gaps in it. Where did we become vertebrates?

Today, The fossil evidence is being uncovered in Yunan province in China. Many of these fossils were alive on this planet 500,000 years ago. The fossil beds in China reveal a sudden loss of life so great that there wasn't time for bacteria to devour the softer parts. The Cambrian explosion gave us tens of thousands of animals, all without a backbone.

But the first animals with nervous systems begin to show up at this time. The Myllokunmingia had a chord that would protect a primitive central nervous systems and it also provided mobility to escape predators. It was the mother of all vertebrates that ever lived on the planet. This astonishing journey to human kind has been one of biological brilliance.

Myllokummingia

Today, we have reminders of the Cambrian era, one of which is called a lamprey. It is so primitive that it appears absent of basic features such as eyes and ears. They kind of have the attractive look of a fat water hose with a circular mouth full of teeth. These animals live in just two places, the Great Lakes of North America and in the cold lakes of Scotland. They are terrifying to look at and even more terrifying if you are to be attacked by one. And yet it happens with more frequency than we really hear about. They are an ancient species that has somehow defied the odds and survived. The first vertebrates seemed to have the same kind of mouth. But over time they would change by developing more complex and efficient use of eating machinery.

Fish which have cartilage for backbones also had developed the jaw. It was great for eating food but it was still a matter of finding it. In addition, 410 Million years ago, the first fins have been developed. The pelvic fins helped to provide movement for their hunting ability. Every underwater environment today begins here.

The Amazing Uniqueness of Each Living Thing On Our Planet Is Stunning

400 million years ago, one of the most astonishing moves in history occurred. Vertebrates made their way onto land. It seems unlikely, for to do so would require an adaptation. And, as we have seen, adaptations are the effect of another cause. What was that cause? The answer seems to be that additional food sources were becoming available to them, in addition to new threats under the seas. The arrival of fauna growing in the shallows and swamps gave rise to new predators, and this created new opportunities for the fish that lived there.

And then, about 370 million years ago, a new species arrived. Dunkleosteus was a formidable hunter, with eyes on the top of its head and fins that looked very much like limbs. A shoulder had developed along with an ulna and radius bone. The fin was still there, but it was adaptive enough to clumsily make its way. The use of fins was so laborious that it burned more calories than it could initially find. But that wasn't the case for long. This creature paved the trail for the first vertebrates to conquer land.

The arrival of the first vertebrate animals could not have happened if it weren't for oxygen. The first group was amphibians. These creatures have ADAPTIVE traits, being able to extract oxygen from both water and air. When out of the water for any length of time, the gills dry up and are rendered useless. But, over time, the gills of the amphibians would would become enclosed, inside the body, and we know these today as lungs.

And – among the MILLIONS of events that threatened and gave rise to life, if just ONE thing had been different, we would not be here to share our story. The odds against us were immense, and it is fascinating to unravel the mysteries, one by one, that narrate our story.

Our ocean and our air, the two most crucial elements on which all life relied, had achieved a delicate balance of oxygen and nitrogen, too pristine to withstand a violent change. As Jacques Cousteau said, "The sea, once it has cast its spell, holds one in its net of wonder forever."

Approximately every 90 seconds, something mysterious occurs. The sky is illuminated by a brilliant flash of energy. These bursts of light come from all directions and happen randomly. Although they appear as Gamma Rays, they are invisible to our human eyes. However, according to a study conducted by California State University at Berkeley, Gamma Ray Bursts are the most powerful phenomena in the sky, second only to the Big Bang itself.

It is what happens when a star explodes. Stars are heated by the photons of light escaping. A gamma-ray burst is the brightest thing in our universe. When a star implodes, all of its matter is squeezed into the core via gravity. During a normal Super-Nova, gravity becomes very strong and thus the core becomes very dense. The result is a 'White-Dwarf' or Neutron Star. An exploding Hyper-Nova is different. All of the suns matter is forced into its center at about a billion earth masses a second. Gravity is so strong, light cannot get out. Since all of its matter cannot fit inside, excess light shoots out of the magnetic poles of the star. It spits out at nearly the speed of light and creates super beams of energy.

When there is no more hydrogen photons to escape, the star begins to produce iron, which as we have already seen, is the death penalty for the star.

450 MILLION YEARS AGO

On this ordinary day 450-Million years ago, the most dramatic moment to ever happen on the earth would occur. There was a flash in the sky, then quiet. Very gradually, the sky would brighten to five times its level on a clear day and the remnant of what looks like a second sun would appear in the sky. In actuality it is simply the reflection of the sun in the newly forming clouds of Nitrogen Dioxide.

A brownish haze would develop over the following week, cooling the earth. As nightfall arrived, the brown haze would hold electrical charges as atoms continued to split apart and reform into new elements.

Ultraviolet radiation peeled away the atmosphere’s ozone layer, and marine life that lived too close to the surface was fried before it could even reproduce once. Consider how fast this gamma-ray burst killed off life! Within weeks, the temperature of the earth had cooled, and 10-20% of the sun’s light was now blocked from hitting the earth, starting a gradual cooling.

Dead marine life began to foul the surface of the planet, and snow began to fall. As temperatures plunged, the snow did not melt over that first winter. Within a few short years, earth became little more than a huge and lifeless snowball. So, what happened?

As we have seen, new ideas are often the slowest to be adopted. It was a controversial theory that a gamma-ray burst hit the earth. Initially, it was believed that a star in the center of the Milky Way exploded and sent an intense amount of energy out of its poles. The intensity of the light was so great that the power was able to penetrate everything in its path.

The ozone was so depleted that the skies lit up brighter than any day on earth had ever experienced. A National Geographic study in 2005 revealed that there was a huge spike in radiation that occurred in the Ordovician period, giving credence to the notion that something of major significance occurred with regards to a gamma-ray burst.

The Space Shuttle Atlantis sent up a satellite to look for Gamma Ray Bursts. The perplexing mystery would be solved with the ‘Compton Observatory.’ Initially, it was thought that due to the strength of the Gamma Ray Burst that hit the Earth, these bursts were within the Milky Way. They were wrong.

They were evenly distributed far and wide, and they could come from anywhere in the universe. And when you consider the strength of the one that hit the Earth, the implications are that these are hugely enormous explosions. In fact, Gamma Ray Bursts are so powerful that they explode with the energy of all the other stars in the universe combined.

Using an interstellar GPS of sorts, the Dutch-Italian satellite in 1997, Beppo-Sax, became the first to measure where the Gamma Ray Bursts were originating. Using a red-shift measuring stick, we can now measure not just distance, but time. There were several that came from an older elliptical galaxy, where very few newer stars reside.

The Gamma-Ray burst hits the upper reaches of the atmosphere with astronomical force, leaving behind a visual that is both stunning and beautiful. The burst was more powerful than all the nuclear arsenals in the world combined. Air molecules were split, and as much as 30-40% of the upper atmosphere of the Earth was destroyed.

The microbes at the surface of the ocean were wiped out due to the ultraviolet light of the sun. The most destructive force in the universe would have eviscerated the planet had we been hit directly. More than likely, we were grazed by it. The smallest of the food chain was quickly wiped out. While the surface was a nursery for many of the larvae, after the burst it had become too hot for survival. The normally hardy trilobites began to die off very rapidly. Coral reefs began to starve to death and ripple up the food chain. Within weeks, the tiny plants on the coral detached themselves and went looking for food.

The surge of ultraviolet light helped to deplete the Ozone and was lethal to plankton. Anything near the surface was wiped out within 90-120 days. The atmosphere suffered intense damage in just 90-minutes. It is a startling reminder of how fragile the ecosystems of this planet can be!

The beam blasted apart the two principle gasses. In this chemical chaos, the Nitrogen is free to re-form with Oxygen It only takes a single molecule of Nitrous-Oxide can wipe out one thousand molecules of Ozone. As a result, 40% of our Ozone was destroyed at once. Another atom that is formed during a Gamma-Ray burst is Nitrogen-Dioxide, an acidic smelling brown gas would cover the planet. Its ominous haze would block out sunlight and initiate global cooling, changing climate and climate patterns.

The sudden drop of temperature provided a one-two punch as to how the Ordovician ended. The harsh ultra-violet killed off new embryos and 75% of all life in just one generation.

These bursts were coming out in beams or jets rather than a 360-degree radius. Because these shoot off in jets, we only see those that are pointed at us. But what causes these explosions? Scientists remain unsure but there is a belief that they are closely related to Black Holes. In 1993, a Super-Nova happened relatively close to earth. All of the nuclear fuel in the star was spent and there was nothing to hold the star together. The explosion was dramatic and beautiful to astronomers here on earth.

In a Super-Nova, the star begins to expand when the nuclear fuel begins to run out. The star is spinning at incredible speeds and gravity begins to pull everything together with great G-Forces. The energy of this star is thrust out in jets on either pole while it is spinning, exiting at the path of least resistance.

‘’…Sexual Selection, by always allowing the victor to breed might surely give indomitable courage, strength, and the will to survive so that the weaker are parsed and the progeny of the winners allowed to proceed.’’

Charles Darwin, Origin of Species, 1854

LOSS OF COLOR

One of the odd side-effects was the loss of color in the animal world. The Coiled Nautili female will look for the most colorful shell of the males with which to mate with. As they dip to deeper parts of the sea they begin to lose their color. Yet, this has been a way to ensure the survival of the fittest. This is natural selection at it’s very best. The deeper seas allow for less light, reducing the color that the animal needs to have to survive predators. But it does nothing in the grand design of procreation. Instead, it ensures their demise. This loss of color now means that the females are mating with males that are not at their healthiest, dropping the life-expectancy and weakening the species.

It is such a small thing given the odds, but it simply details how very deep the odds were that anything-let alone anyone, would survive these catastrophic events. And in this particular case, the nautili is not unlike most marine animals in this respect and the deeper they go, the fewer and fewer survive.

The once vibrant habitat of the reefs soon became a dingy and morose graveyard. The change in climate caused more and more destructive hurricanes and the weakened animals are smashed onto the shallow surfaces.

Big temperature swings created strong ocean currents in the same way that an El Nino does today. Wave after wave of large storms drive the animals deeper and deeper into the sea. The initial escape mechanisms rushing to deeper water causes the shells of the straight nautili’s to burst from the inside. The curved nautili’s are stronger, but as we see already, their line is being weakened by the lack of sunlight. Everywhere, the life on this planet was in its gravest peril.

What an immense catastrophe in time the earth was experiencing! And yet when we travel to near worlds like Mars, we cannot help but wonder if we are catching a glimpse into their own mass extinctions. The ultimate irony is not that we suffered through these extinctions, but that we ever came back at all to have the lives we lead now. If even ONE thing had gone differently, we would not be here today.

Below: Samples of the Amazing Diversity In Just One Life-Family Tree

Photography by Robert Bluestein

The first flowers to appear sprouted nearly 200 million years ago.

With no surface animals to gather their remains, their fossils give indication of their story. We continue to pull remains of a time in our history when the earth was in a very different trajectory. Fossils tell the story of radiation and heat; of global cooling and then warming; of earthquakes and huge climatic changes that interrupted and diverted every possible trajectory to the ultimate human emergence. How very different it might have been had there never been a Gamma-Ray burst. How very different it might have been if we hadn’t had the volcanoes, the meteor strike, the Ice-Ages and the rise and fall of the great reptiles!

THE LIFELESS HEART OF THE COLD

This lethal Gamma-Ray burst 450-Million years ago ultimately starved the world, polluted the atmosphere, and in just 150,000 years after the burst, all of life was being subject to a colder and colder world.

The first ice-age begin to develop over the South Pole and sucked up vast amounts of ocean water, declining the sea-level, draining the ponds and losing so much space on the planet that destroyed many of the existing life forms.

Our ancient ancestor Astraspis adhered to cold water better than any other species. But one feature that keys survival is the ability to eat anything. Astraspis would prove to have that one evolutionary trait that spoke volumes to the secrets of survival. They were versatile and they were remarkably resilient.

Fish begin to take off as a species and the bones and muscles that make up the first gills begin to chew and move food into the digestive system. Every vertebrate on the earth has these characteristics. One of the more fascinating pursuits has to do with Living Fossils, the fishes that should be extinct, but somehow Mountains of ice begin to plow over coral in the oceans and massive devastation and bizarre landscapes result.

The mass extinction continues for 550,000 years after the Gamma Ray burst. The earth froze and now another extreme environmental shock is about to happen. As the earth revives, it gets warmer. A wide distribution of animals becomes a bloody killing fields for the sea scorpions. These creatures begin a curious new behavior. Once they make a kill, they take their kill to the surface and suddenly they make their way onto land. Their lungs begin to develop.

There are many reasons suspected for this behavior but it is entirely possible that the Sea Scorpion was incapable of defending itself when it was eating. Getting out of the water solved that problem. Relatives of Astraspis develop a first of its kind too---moveable jaws had heretofore never been seen on Planet Earth. Yet Acanthodians have developed just such an evolutionary trait. It allows them to become true predators and mass extinction has transformed the hunters into the hunted and vice-versa.

700,000 years later, the planet is finally recovering. What little life there is left is awakening from a cold-slumber even though 80% of all life is lost. We find that almost a million species that existed on this planet shall exist no more. It still astounds us that we humans are where we are today, given such insurmountable odds!

And yet, amazing new species will repopulate the ocean and will return to a life-giving planet. The diversity that re-evolved in the open oceans now begin to populate fresh water lakes and every fish we know today will exist as a result of our ancient ancestors.

Paleo-World

We are fascinated by the Earth and how it might have looked long before life existed. We are also fascinated by the age of the dinosaurs and how they lived. Scientists say that 65 million years ago, the Earth was loaded with huge reptiles and flying creatures that were larger than our largest birds are today. It must have been a simply awesome sight to see an 80-foot animal approaching you. Even the king of the dinosaurs, the T-Rex, had a terrifying character. What most people do not know is that the dinosaurs died out quite suddenly—so quickly they could not even reproduce.

A huge meteor hit the Yucatan Peninsula, and it was so powerful that it crushed the Earth a full 30 miles below the surface. The highest jets only go six miles above the Earth, making for a spectacular inferno. Such an impact had to drastically change the Earth. In fact, the debris was flung so high into the air that it literally rained fire on the animals below. The entire continental United States up to Montana and North Dakota was incinerated within two minutes of the impact. Almost at once, the sky turned an ashen gray, and sulfurs from deep inside the Earth helped to create an acid rain that burned the animals below. Nothing was spared from the hellfire that was pouring down upon the planet.

THE EARTHQUAKE THAT FOLLOWED

A new study, released in October 2015, indicates that the meteor touched off a massive earthquake, close to 11.3 - 14.4 on the Richter Scale. The shaking was violent throughout the earth, setting loose a chain of reactions that affected the Deccan highlands in India.

Scientists know that a large volcanic phenomenon was happening in India, spreading lava across the Deccan Traps around the same time the object hit. The recent dating of rock formations shows the lava flow began before the impact. The Washington Post, citing the study, reports the asteroid or comet didn’t initially cause the eruption, but could have intensified it.

The combination of sulfurous gas and dust, paired with the impact, created a massive climate change as the sun’s rays were blanketed out.

When adding the effect of twin volcanoes erupting at the same time, we have multiple-cataclysmic events that sealed the doom for this planet. The amount of time needed for the earth to be covered with flaming debris was a matter of days. The extinction of 90% of living organisms happened almost instantly.

Within twelve hours, huge Tsunami’s were drowning anything close to the land -masses and the oceans were disrupted and torn asunder. Entire islands were buried under the sea forever, others emerged with the resulting such a huge earthquake and aftershocks that are STILL shaking our planet today. Even half-way around the world, in China and Mongolia, dinosaurs weren’t completely spared. Triceratops ruled the land known today as the Gobi desert. Only back then, this was not a desert at all. It was a relatively plush land where herbivores could live quite well. But now that’s about to change.

As for the sulfur, it has a profound affect. The molecules bonded with oxygen and nitrogen and created a reverse greenhouse effect. Light from the sun could penetrate the surface, but the heat was reflected off into space. Bitter cold ensued, and it came quickly. Within six months, the temperatures of the planet dropped significantly. We know this from ice-cores that have been taken from places in Greenland and Northern Canada. The bitter cold was here to stay.

When we study the Earth and the animals on this planet, one thing is quite clear: the animals that lived back then were hideous in appearance. The few survivors of that forgotten age are living today, 10,000 or more feet under the ocean. Anglerfish and tube worms are creatures out of a science fiction movie. The frilled shark and goblin shark are simply terrifying in appearance.

....JUST ONCE

What are the odds? Gamma-ray bursts, among the most energetic explosions in the universe, occur with astonishing frequency across the vast cosmos. These incredible phenomena are not just distant events; they are powerful enough that even if a gamma-ray burst were to graze past the Earth, the consequences could be catastrophic. The sheer energy released during such an explosion can disrupt the delicate balance of life on our planet, affecting everything from our atmosphere to the very DNA of living organisms.

Recent scientific investigations have led us to believe that we might have evidence of a gamma-ray burst that struck the Earth around the year 774 AD. Analyzing tree rings from that particular year reveals an astonishing increase in carbon-14 levels, approximately 20 times higher than what is typically observed.

This spike in carbon-14 is intriguing and has prompted researchers to propose a theory: a gamma-ray burst originating from a star located within a mere 13,000 light-years of Earth may have narrowly missed our planet around 1,200 years ago. The explosion of a star, reminiscent of our own sun, could have unleashed a torrent of high-energy radiation that interacted with the Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in the formation of excess carbon-14. This hypothesis opens up a fascinating window into the past, suggesting that our planet has experienced cosmic events that have left indelible marks on its biological and geological history.

So what does the future for Earth hold in light of these cosmic occurrences? To gain insight into our planet's potential fate, one need only observe Venus. When we look at Venus, we are essentially gazing into a possible future scenario for Earth. The carbon that is currently locked away in carbonate rocks on our planet plays a crucial role in regulating carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere. This regulation is vital for maintaining a stable climate and preventing catastrophic temperature increases.

If this carbon were to be released into the atmosphere in the form of CO2, the consequences could be dire. In a scenario reminiscent of Venus, where a runaway greenhouse effect has led to extreme surface temperatures and a hostile environment, our own oceans could begin to evaporate as our life-giving sun undergoes changes in its lifecycle. This transformation, projected to unfold over hundreds of millions of years, serves as a sobering glimpse into the potential future of our planet, highlighting the importance of understanding cosmic events and their implications for life on Earth.

We are just the right distance from the sun for water to exist as a liquid. But that will change for us too. Ever since its birth, the sun is getting hotter and this increased heat devastated Venus and it will destroy earth too. In just 1.2Billion years, the temperature will increase on the sun by 10%. Waters will evaporate and there will be a runaway greenhouse effect as the thick clouds obscure the light and trap more and more heat, driving temperatures even higher. Spiraling temperatures cause greater evaporation and it multiplies the heat on the planet. Soon the temperature rises to such a degree that rocks begin to melt.

Earth could lose its oceans in just 10,000 years, a geologic blink of the eye. Unlike Venus, which topped out at 900-degrees, the earth's temperature will increase to a much higher temperature than even Venus is now. The water vapor will cause the temperatures to keep climbing. The earth's water vapors are protected by our magnetic field which is designed to protect us. But now, the magnetic field acts like a trap and the huge volume of water vapor increases the surface pressure. It will one day exist at 270-times the pressure that exists today.

With no oceans or living organisms to break down the Co2 - the surface of the earth liquefies just as it was in its beginning. It is inevitable that the earth will follow this same path as Venus but will surpass it. We will be the hottest and most molten planet in the solar system. It will be four times hotter than Venus.

The Marvel of Existence

The odds are truly astonishing. Our brief flicker of consciousness is but a fleeting moment in the vast expanse of the geologic time-scale. Almost with a sense of cosmic grace, we come into being, traverse the tapestry of life, and depart, blissfully unaware of the fate that awaits our planet as the sun slowly wanes. The intricate dance of events that led to our existence is nothing short of miraculous.

Imagine, if you will, a deck of cards. I once took such a deck, shuffled it with care, and laid the cards before me. A thought crossed my mind: "How many times must I repeat this act to witness the same 52 cards aligned in this precise order?" Would it require a million attempts? Perhaps ten million? Or even a staggering one hundred billion? The sheer improbability of those sequenced, choreographed, yet seemingly random events converging in such an exact manner underscores the delicate balance of existence. Without this remarkable orchestration, we simply would not be.

Yet, the number of times I could shuffle and draw those same 52 cards becomes inconsequential. All that is required is for it to happen just once. To the best of our understanding, there exists but a singular blueprint for life, and we are its evolving manifestation. It stands as a testament to the wonder and complexity of the universe, as astounding as it is profound.

Can it occur once more? Are we truly solitary in this vast cosmos? The answer would seem to be a resounding yes. For the miracle of existence needed to manifest only a single time, despite the seemingly insurmountable odds that conspired against it from the very outset. Close your eyes for a fleeting instant, and that instant is but a whisper in the grand expanse of time. While this singular moment is forever lost to us, the potential for new beginnings can emerge in the blink of an eye. We need not harbor doubts about this notion; after all, it has unfolded before our very eyes. And that is more than sufficient to inspire hope that it may unfold again. Even if it transpired—just once.

References and Additional Notes

1. Usher, Oli (27 October 2016). "Chemistry of seabed's hot vents could explain emergence of life" (Press release). University College London. Retrieved 2015-06-19.

2. Cleaves, H. James; Chalmers, John H.; Lazcano, Antonio; et al. (April 2008). "A Reassessment of Prebiotic Organic Synthesis in Neutral Planetary Atmospheres". Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer. 38 (2): 105–115. Bibcode:2008OLEB...38..105C. doi:10.1007/s11084-007-9120-3. ISSN 0169-6149. PMID 18204914.

3. Darwin's Notebook B: Transmutation of species. pp. 1–13, 26, 36, 74, retrieved 1855

4. Darwin, Charles (1859), "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life", Nature (Full image view 1st ed.), London: John Murray, 5 (121): 502, Bibcode:1872Natur...5..318B, doi:10.1038/005318a0, retrieved 1 March 2011

5. Quammen, David (2006), The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, New York: Atlas Books

6. Ivanchik, A. V.; Potekhin, A. Y.; Varshalovich, D. A. (1999). "The Fine-Structure Constant: A New Observational Limit on Its Cosmological Variation and Some Theoretical Consequences".

7. Hawking, S. W.; Ellis, G. F. R. (1973). The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time. Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-09906-4.

8. Kragh, H. (1996). Cosmology and Controversy. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-02623-8.

9. Jump up ^ "People and Discoveries: Big Bang Theory". A Science Odyssey. PBS. Retrieved 9 March 2012.

10. Overbye, Dennis (24 March 2014). "Ripples From the Big Bang". New York Times. Retrieved 24 March 2014.

11. Haq, B. U.; Schutter, SR (2008). "A Chronology of Paleozoic Sea-Level Changes". Science. 322 (5898): 64–8. Bibcode:2008Sci...322...64H.

12. V. V. Khomentovskii; G. A. Karlova (2005). "The Tommotian Stage Base as the Cambrian Lower Boundary in Siberia". Stratigraphy and Geological Correlation. 13 (1): 21–34.

13. Jump up ^ Gradstein, F.M.; Ogg, J.G.; Smith, A.G.; et al. (2004). A Geologic Time Scale 2004. Cambridge University Press.

14. Jump up ^ Powell, C.M.; Dalziel, I.W.D.; Li, Z.X.; McElhinny, M.W. (1995). "Did Pannotia, the latest Neoproterozoic southern supercontinent, really exist". Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union. 76: 46–72.

15. Garwood, Russell J.; Edgecombe, Gregory D. (September 2011). "Early Terrestrial Animals, Evolution, and Uncertainty". Evolution: Education and Outreach. New York: Springer Science+Business Media. 4 (3): 489–501. doi:10.1007/s12052-011-0357-y. ISSN 1936-6426. Retrieved 2015-07-21.

16. Jump up ^ Niedźwiedzki (2010). "Tetrapod trackways from the early Middle Devonian period of Poland". Nature. 463 (7277): 43–48. Bibcode:2010Natur.463...43N. doi:10.1038/nature08623. PMID 20054388.

17. Jump up ^ Zhang, Ying-ying; Xue, Jin-Zhuang; Liu, Le; Wang, De-ming (2016). "Periodicity of reproductive growth in lycopsids: An example from the Upper Devonian of Zhejiang Province, China". Paleoworld. 25 (1): 12–20.

-----------------------------------------------UPDATE FROM OCTOBER 2021---------------------------------------------

EPILOGUE

This was just published from the University College London's Department of Physics and written by Peter Barker in October of 2016. It offers continuing evidence as to the formation of the earth.

Hot vents on the seabed could have spontaneously produced the organic molecules necessary for life, according to new research by UCL chemists.

The study shows how the surfaces of mineral particles inside hydrothermal vents have similar chemical properties to enzymes, the biological molecules that govern chemical reactions in living organisms. This means that vents are able to create simple carbon-based molecules, such as methanol and formic acid, out of the dissolved CO2 in the water.

The discovery, published in the journal Chemical Communications, explains how some of the key building blocks for organic chemistry were already being formed in nature before life emerged – and may have played a role in the emergence of the first life forms. It also has potential practical applications, showing how products such as plastics and fuels could be synthesised from CO2 rather than oil.

“There is a lot of speculation that hydrothermal vents could be the location where life on Earth began,” says Nora de Leeuw, who heads the team. “There is a lot of CO2dissolved in the water, which could provide the carbon that the chemistry of living organisms is based on, and there is plenty of energy, because the water is hot and turbulent. What our research proves is that these vents also have the chemical properties that encourage these molecules to recombine into molecules usually associated with living organisms.”

The team combined laboratory experiments with supercomputer simulations to investigate the conditions under which the mineral particles would catalyse the conversion of CO2 into organic molecules. The experiments replicated the conditions present in deep sea vents, where hot and slightly alkaline water rich in dissolved CO2passes over the mineral greigite (Fe3S4), located on the inside surfaces of the vents. These experiments hinted at the chemical processes that were underway.

The simulations, which were run on UCL’s Legion supercomputer and HECToR (the UK national supercomputing service), provided a molecule-by-molecule view of how the CO2 and greigite interacted, helping to make sense of what was being observed in the experiments. The computing power and programming expertise to accurately simulate the behaviour of individual molecules in this way has only become available in the past decade.

“We found that the surfaces and crystal structures inside these vents act as catalysts, encouraging chemical changes in the material that settles on them,” says Nathan Hollingsworth, a co-author of the study. “They behave much like enzymes do in living organisms, breaking down the bonds between carbon and oxygen atoms. This lets them combine with water to produce formic acid, acetic acid, methanol and pyruvic acid. Once you have simple carbon-based chemicals such as these, it opens the door to more complex carbon-based chemistry.”

Theories about the emergence of life suggest that increasingly complex carbon-based chemistry led to self-replicating molecules – and, eventually, the appearance of the first cellular life forms. This research shows how one of the first steps in this journey may have occurred. It is proof that simple organic molecules can be synthesised in nature without living organisms being present. It also confirms that hydrothermal vents are a plausible location for at least part of this process to have occurred.

The study could also have a practical applications, as it provides a method for creating carbon-based chemicals out of CO2, without the need for extreme heat or pressure. This could, in the long term, replace oil as the raw material for products such as plastics, fertilisers and fuels.

This study shows, albeit on a very small scale, that such products, which are currently produced from non-renewable raw materials, can be produced by more environmentally friendly means. If the process can be scaled up to commercially viable scales, it would not only save oil, but use up CO2 – a greenhouse gas – as a raw material.

#Odds #LifeOrigin #Origin #Thebegining