Chapter 1 



INTRODUCTION 



INTEREST IN THE ORIGIN OF LIFE ON EARTH 



In my position as a naturalist specialised in geology, the origin of life 

 on earth, and particularly its geological aspects, ought to have in- 

 terested me from early days. This has not been the case. Quite to the 

 contrary, my early interests were captured by other fascinating aspects 

 of the geological history of the earth, to such an extent that the origin 

 of life remained outside my personal vision. Not until much later, 

 and then only through a lucky coincidence, did I become aware of 

 this subject. This lucky event came about by a certain number of 

 searching questions asked by the late microbiologict. Professor A. 

 Kluyver of Delft. 



Only then did I realise how much thought was given in modern 

 biology, mainly by microbiologists and biochemists, to the mode of 

 origin of life on earth. Concurrently I realised that geology has to 

 consider its own attitude towards this new development. Not only 

 must we study our own findings and how they can be incorporated 

 into the viewpoints of the biologists, but we must also think about 

 the direction to which geological research might be oriented to help 

 unravel this subject. 



I believe my case to be typical for most geologists. Consequently, 

 this book is to inform them about the problems concerning the origin 

 of life, problems which for the greater number of geologists are out- 

 side the daily routine. On the other hand, many biologists want to 

 know what geologists are thinking about these problems, and what 

 factual data geology has to offer. It is mainly for these two groups 

 that this book has been written. However, I hope to have succeeded 

 in giving enough of the basic trends of research and of speculative 

 thinking to make it of interest also to the more general reader. 



The origin of life on earth has a far wider appeal than to special- 



