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Ok, so a bunch of posts before were about how if evolution is correct, 'things just pop into existence'. That is possibly the most ignorant arguement against evolution I have ever heard. In fact, if you actually understand evolution, you'd see how contradictory that statement is. And before I go any further, props to TAK, i totaly agree with him (and on a sidenote to LAG, the Earth really isnt that special, scientists have found many large gas giants in other solar systems, and in fact, if the orbits of these extra-solar planets are studied and calculated, there are anomolies which predict that smaller planets, possibly like Earth, DO EXIST. Read Scientific American from last January)
So, back to the main point. Evolution does not describe things jsut popping into existance (Creation theory does). The jump between non-life and life was a subtle one, but a point that has become of great interest to scientists because of it relitive easiness to isolate and do in a laboratory. In fact, my science class has done this last year in AP Biology.
In the early earth, there were many volcanoes and eruptions. These eruptions let loose the water vapor that eventually amassed in the atmosphere and started raining down on the earth. Pools formed, and the rain falling through the atmosphere caught and brought into these pools many volcanic gasses, such as Sulpher, Carbon, Nitrogen, Silicon and Oxygen (and various compounds of these basic elements, like CO2, CNO3, etc). Because of the huge amount of eruptive activity, the skies over these pools of basic elements would be very charged and lightning would strike often. So scientists thought: what would happen if we could recreate this model in a laboratory?
So they did. The same elements and compounds that were in the early Earth's atmmosphere were diluted in water and sent through a repitous system where the water would be heated, the vapors carring the elements would pass through a high current, and then the condensed vapors would fall back down and rejoin the system. Over time, the system eventually turns from a clear color to a light brown color. When the solution is then tested, it is found that certain amino acids and basic polypeptides exist. In short, the basic nutrients and building blocks were there.
Ok, so now you might be saying, 'well that was in a laboratory, and the substances were probably less concentrated, blah blah blah'. Think though: The experiment in the lab took a few days to get proper results. The early earth had a few million years of the right circumstances. It is completely possible that these building blocks formed in abundancy in the Darwinian pools of the early earth.
So how did life actually start? Probably in clay coated pools. The clay would have kept most of the liquid from flash evaporating from repeated lightning strikes. Nonpolar molocules, like most hydrocarbons, also have nonpolar and polar ends. If these hydrocarbons are allowed to mix, which can be replicated in your average high school lab with glycogen and syrine, then the molocules will form together in an interesting way. The nonpolar and hydrophobic ends will face inwards, creating a circle of hydrocarbons. basically, this is nearly the same as a cell membrane, and these bubbles of hydrocarbons could have easily trapped some important amino acids inside them. While all of this probably didnt happen overnight, the earth had many millions of years for this to occur, and it is more than quite possible that life formed from Darwinian Pools.
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Rowen
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