![]() ![]() ![]() This may seem an exceedingly improbably thing to happen. It may not necessarily have been the biggest or complex molecule around, but it had the extraordinary property of being able to create copies of itself. And at some point, a remarkable configuration eventuated by total accident. Under further influence of energy such as ultraviolet from the sun, they combined into larger molecules in all kinds of random arrangements. With all the contributions of Earth and heating from the sun, these raw materials morphed into organic substances called purines and pyrimidines, the building blocks of the genetic molecule DNA itself. ![]() We do not know what chemical raw materials were abundant on earth before the coming of life, but among the plausible possibilities are water, carbon dioxide, methane and ammonia. Darwin’s theory of evolution shows us the long road in which simplicity can gradually morph into complexity as we know it today – how unordered atoms could group themselves into ever more complex patterns until they ended up manufacturing people. “ We are survival machines – robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes. ![]()
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