Cheltenham HS

“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get” -Forrest Gump Life is the manifestation of evolution; a mixture of time and chemical reactions. Life is something to be marveled at; hopefully something that is beyond human corruption. In simplest of terms, life is the product of sunlight and water; the result of small molecules colliding with each other, forming and reforming complex compounds which combine to become one great whole. Each of these complex compounds takes on an existence of its own. All together they begin to create processes which serve to support and protect life. Ultimately, life is the process of using energy, and excreting wastes. These simple functions represent the refinement of chemical processes over the millennia. It is thought that life started in the oceans. The early oceans contained all of the material for the formation of amino acids and proteins. Throughout evolution, life forms have evolved into land creatures, but have maintained their link to the oceans through their salt water content. Protein formation from amino acids is the basic life process, one that even viruses perform. As Dr. Oparin hypothesized and Drs. Miller and Urey demonstrated in the research laboratory, the primordial oceans and the environment collaborated on producing the building blocks of life. From proteins and water and carbon-based compounds, the codes for protein production evolved. Small organisms, known as prokaryotes formed, secure in the code for their own structure. Through chemical evolution these prokaryotes evolved into Eukaryotes. Evolution of chemical processes joined together more products to form larger photosynthetic bacteria. Then oxygen breathing organisms helped a life-supporting and life-sustaining environment to evolve. As the environment and the life forms began to interact, the processes of refinement of life occurred. Many new forms of life developed and died, too fragile to cope with the many challenges of perpetuating a species. Others persisted for millennia, a mere blink of the evolutionary eye. As life contemplates itself it must do so recognizing its history of evolution and its challenging and fragile future. Sources 1. Nash, J., “How did Life Begin?”, Time, October 11, 1993. 2. “Life.” Encyclopaedia Britannica, 15 ed., Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., Chicago, 1991. 3. “Unit 2: The Origin of Life.”, Rebecca Mazen, Mazen, Inc., Philadelphia, 1997.