Cheltenham HS

 
 Life 
 
 What is life really? What is the point and how did 
 it begin? These questions have been pondered for 
 many lifetimes. Numerous experiments have been 
 conducted, but still the answers are not conclusive.
 
 Life, by definition, is the living cellular quality 
 that separates plants and animals from such things 
 as water and rock. Life is a flowing cycle that 
 continues forever, creating and destroying. New 
 additions are added as things evolve, while species 
 are destroyed by carelessness. This cycle of life 
 is a constant creator of needs and desires, such as 
 hunger, thirst, and sex. Life is a grand partnership 
 with all aspects working together to keep up the flow 
 of things. It is hard work and rewards, questions and 
 answers, triumph and defeat. Within a being, there is 
 cooperation of systems which are both simple and complex. 
 Life is boundless emotions including joy, sadness, anger, 
 and curiosity. Life is past, present, and future, 
 each with its own effect. Life is possessed by animal, 
 plant, and insect. For people, it is the experiences 
 that shape a personality. Life is a precious wonderful 
 thing that should be embraced by all.
 
 Many theories have been developed dealing with how 
 life began. Among these, biogenesis and abiogenesis 
 are the most commonly accepted. I believe that life 
 began with abiogenesis through chemical evolution. 
 There are many reasons to believe this. The elements 
 necessary for life such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, 
 nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur were all present at 
 the start of life. Energy was able to be obtained 
 though the sun, lightning, volcanoes, and decaying 
 radioactive material in the earth. The experiment 
 conducted by Miller and Urey in the 1950's, in which 
 amino acids formed in a container with similar 
 conditions as those in ancient times, influences 
 my opinion greatly. If it is possible to create 
 these building blocks of protein under their conditions, 
 then it was probably possible in the past. Sidney Fox's 
 experiment also supports spontaneous generation. He 
 produced microspheres by heating amino acids and then 
 cooling them. These spheres could metabolize, grow and 
 divide like a living cell which leads me to believe that 
 over time they could evolve into a living thing. The 
 main reason which causes me to believe in abiogenesis 
 is that the other option seems impossible. If life did 
 not begin with spontaneous generation, and all living 
 things came from living things, then when and how did it 
 all begin? No experiment has ever recreated the 
 conditions completely or allowed enough time for 
 process of life to start. It must have taken millions 
 of years for life to begin. Studies will continue, but 
 answers may never be found to these questions of life.