“That’s an odd thought.”
“One of life’s great mysteries is that the cells of a multicellular animal
have the ability to specialize their function in spite of the fact that not all the
different hereditary characteristics are active in all the cells. Some of these
characteristics—or genes—are ‘activated’ and others are ‘deactivated.’ A liver
cell does not produce the same proteins as a nerve cell or a skin cell. But all
three types of cell have the same DMA molecule, which contains the whole
recipe for the organism in question.
“Since there was no oxygen in the atmosphere, there was no protective
ozone layer around the earth. That means there was nothing to stop the
radiation from the cosmos. This is also significant because this radiation was
probably instrumental in forming the first complex molecule. Cosmic radiation
of this nature was the actual energy which caused the various chemical
substances on the earth to start combining into a complicated macro-
molecule.”
“Okay.”
“Let me recapitulate: Before such complex molecules, of which all life
consists, can be formed, at least two conditions must be present: there must
be no oxygen in the atmosphere, and there must be access for cosmic radia-
tion.”
“I get it.”
“In this ‘hot little pool’—or primal soup, as it is often called by modern
scientists—there was once formed a gigantically complicated macromolecule,
which had the wondrous property of being able to subdivide itself into two
identical parts. And so the long evolutionary process began, Sophie. If we
simplify it a bit, we can say that we are now talking of the first hereditary
material, the first DNA or the first living cell. It subdivided itself again and
again—but from the very first stage, transmutation was occurring. After aeons
of time, one of these monocellular organisms connected with a more
complicated multicel-lular organism. Thus the photosynthesis of plants also
began, and in that way the atmosphere came to contain oxygen. This had two
results: first, the atmosphere permitted the evolution of animals that could
breathe with the aid of lungs. Secondly, the atmosphere protected life from
the harmful cosmic radiation. Strangely enough, this radiation, which was
probably a vital ‘spark’ in the formation of the first cell, is also harmful to all
forms of life.”
“But the atmosphere can’t have been formed overnight. How did the
earliest forms of life manage?”
“Life began in the primal ‘seas’—which are what we mean by primal
soup. There it could live protected from the harmful rays. Not until much later,
when life in the oceans had formed an atmosphere, did the first amphibians
crawl out onto land. The rest is what we have already talked about. And here
we are, sitting in a hut in the woods, looking back on a process that has taken
three or four billion years. And in us, this long process has finally become
aware of itself.”
“And yet you don’t think it all happened quite accidentally?”
“I never said that. The picture on this board shows that evolution had a
direction. Across the aeons of time animals have evolved with increasingly
complicated nerve systems—and an ever bigger brain. Personally, I don’t
think that can be accidental. What do you think?”