Stupid Evolution Quote of the Week: Its a Gas
This week’s entry by Sara Goudarzi in Live Science requires no comment. The title of the article is, “Life’s Origin a Gas.”
Life on Earth emerged out of thin air, scientists now say.
By mimicking in a lab the gases that could have been present on early Earth, researchers have concluded that a layer of haze blanketing our planet produced organic material that helped living organisms develop.
Sara went on to talk about how the atmosphere on Saturn’s moon Titan might have resembled that on the early Earth. An organic haze layer could have existed for “a billion years while life was evolving,” she said, based on inspiration from a recent paper claiming that organic material could have rained down on the Earth like manna from heaven. Despite the opening bravado, her article ended on a minor chord: “Scientists still do not know exactly what triggered the onset of biology, however.”
Life emerged out of thin air. Wonderful. That’s a gas, all right. Laughing gas.