The Mysterious Origins of Life

Posted on July 16, 2009 by Lisa A. Shiel

How did life emerge on Earth?

No one knows. About 3.5 billion years ago single-celled life appeared, in the form of bacteria. Lots of theories attempt to explain how this life came to exist, yet with so little evidence on which to base these theories they are  speculation at best. The typical explanation for the genesis of life centers around the “organic soup” notion—the idea that oceans rich in nutrients and chemicals considered essential to life somehow encouraged the first single-celled life-forms to spontaneously self-generate. Newer theories point to hydrothermal vents as the birthplace of life.

The first life-forms, photosynthesizing bacteria, ruled the Earth for 3 billion years. That’s about 90% of the Earth’s lifespan so far.

Tomorrow, what happened then?

A fossil stromatolite.

A fossil stromatolite.

For more about the mysterious origins of life, check out my book The Evolution Conspiracy, coming in September 2009.

At left, a fossil stromatolite, a colony of ancient bacteria. (photo by Burkhard Plache, licensed through Wikimedia Commons).

Filed under: Ancient Enigmas, Ancient History, Evolution / Human Origins | Tagged: ,

« »

Leave a Reply

  • Post Archives

  • Follow Lisa on Twitter

  • RSS Lisa’s Evolution Conspiracy blog

    • Did the Year of Darwin Change Your Mind? December 31, 2009
      Whether you believe in evolution or doubt it, this year gave you plenty to ponder. I daresay many people experienced Darwin overload as worship of evolution’s god reached fanatical proportions. In 2009 Darwin fans marked a double anniversary, the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his book The [... […]
    • California Science Center Sued for Canceling Intelligent Design Film December 29, 2009
      L.A.’s California Science Center will start the new year defending itself in court for canceling a documentary film attacking Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution. A lawsuit alleges that the state-owned center improperly bowed to pressure from the Smithsonian Institution, as well as e-mailed complaints from USC professors and others. It contends […]
    • Merry Christmas December 24, 2009
      Merry Christmas to everyone! Posted in Lisa's comments
    • Where’s the Conspiracy? December 16, 2009
      When you call your book The Evolution Conspiracy, one question naturally arises. Where’s the conspiracy? Before I wrote the book I sat down and considered what I wanted to do with it. Humor is an important element in all of my writing, as is questioning mainstream dogma. In my novel The Hunt for Bigfoot I explored [...]
    • Why Criticize Evolution? December 14, 2009
      Why write a book critiquing evolution? Aren’t there enough of those out there? I considered the reasons for writing The Evolution Conspiracy before I started writing the book. I didn’t want to write the book unless I could make it different from others covering the same topic. As a novelist I’ve enjoyed dreaming up storylines unlike [...]

  • RSS Lisa’s Strange Michigan blog

    • Santa and His Cryptids December 24, 2009
      Tonight children will try to stay awake until Santa arrives at their homes. They hope to glimpse that jolly elf and, perhaps, some of his reindeer. His flying reindeer. Christmas cryptids! Since no known species of reindeer can fly, we must assume Santa has conscripted eight cryptids—cryptozoological creatures—to assist him in his gift deliveries. Then, of c […]
    • Fairies and Bigfoot in Michigan Folklore December 16, 2009
      Two ancient pictographs demonstrate that fairies and Bigfoot have lived in Michigan since ancient times?
    • The Mysteries of UFOs & Ice Circles December 14, 2009
      Back in November 2006, a man discovered a wheel of ice floating in the Hemlock River, near the town of Amasa in the western Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The night before, the same man had seen, as HBCC Research puts it, “a vibrating beam of light/pulsating lights” in the skies over the river. No one [...]
    • The Parking Ticket That Grew a Beard December 11, 2009
      Okay, so maybe the parking ticket hasn’t grown a beard, but it’s certainly old enough to have grown one. In April of 2008, the Calumet Village Police received a payment for a parking ticket issued 31 years earlier. The anonymous woman who sent payment, in an envelope with no return address, begged the police not [...]
    • Monsters in the Lake December 9, 2009
      Lake Superior is vast and deep. Its nickname the Inland Sea stems from its similarities to the oceans. So it comes as no surprise that mysteries lurk in the depths of Superior. In 1977, Randy Braun snapped a photo of something which he suspects was a giant serpent swimming in the waters of Lake Superior, near [...]

  • Recent Comments