1.8.2 Chemical Evolution

Chemical evolution has to do abiogenesis (“origin of life”). It involves scientific hypotheses for how the first living things might have been able to form from the right combination of chemicals and other factors. Experiments, such as one conducted by Stanley Miller and Harold Ulrey in 1952, show that organic compounds, including amino acids, can form spontaneously from the right combination of chemicals and energy. It is speculated that this might have been one means of forming the precursors to the first living things on earth.

There are a number of problems with the scientific data on this, including the fact that such molecules found in nature are either all “left handed” or “right handed,” but those formed spontaneously in the experiments contain an equal number of both, which is not suitable for life as we know it. It is also unknown what combination of chemicals were present in the earth’s early atmosphere, and whether the precise environmental conditions were present to allow them to form spontaneously. Many scientific theories abound, which attempt to explain these questions, but so far there is no definitive model which can explain the pathway from inorganic chemicals to self-replicating molecules, not to mention complex living cells, etc.