LIFE, CARBON'S OUTSTANDING PROPERTY 91 



aluminum or to magnesium and helium, etc. It is quite 

 evident that any organic substance would be rapidly de- 

 composed and the wayfaring germs, if any should be there, 

 would be rapidly killed off. These irrefutable facts are the 

 doom of the theory of panspermia. 



In contrast to all these contradictory assumptions, Oparin 

 builds up a rational new theory. He postulates that a long 

 process of evolution of lifeless organic matter preceded the 

 development of the first simplest living organism. He takes 

 the standpoint that all living things are merely a very late 

 result in the general evolution of matter, particularly of the 

 evolution of carbon and the carbon compounds. Thus, 

 Oparin draws the same conclusions which this writer tenta- 

 tively developed in 1933, namely, that "life is just one of 

 the countless properties of the compounds of carbon" 

 (Compare R. Beutner, Physical Chemistry of Living Tissues 

 and Life Processes.) 



Plenty of lifeless organic matter, similar to that of which 

 living things are nowadays formed, must have been present 

 at the surface of the earth prior to the appearance of life 

 itself, as Oparin points out. Where did this lifeless organic 

 matter come from? Oparin answers this question by de- 

 termining the fate of carbon, the life-producing element. 

 What changes did carbon undergo from the earliest time of 

 the existence of our planet? 



Our earth was formed from the sun as a consequence of a 

 cosmic catastrophe of a type which is of extremely rare 

 occurrence. Another sun of equal or larger size must have 

 passed by our sun close enough to exert gravitational in- 

 fluence. A huge tidal wave of the liquid white-hot matter 

 of the sun was drawn out from it. This tidal wave was 

 pulled further and further away from the sun as that celes- 

 tial body approached our sun closer and closer. But that 

 second sun later passed by and continued its travel into 



