HOW LIFE CAME TO EARTH 101 



beginning of life was not a fortuitous event 

 occurring millions of years ago and never 

 again repeated, but one which in its primordial 

 stages keeps on repeating itself all the time 

 and in our generation. So that, if all intelligent 

 creatures were by some holocaust destroyed, 

 up out of the depths in process of millions 

 of years intelligent beings would once more 

 emerge. 



In this process of chemical evolution up 

 to the stage which we at the present day 

 regard as living, it is to be observed that as 

 the non-living colloid becomes more and 

 more complex and accordingly more and more 

 labile, it at the same time must become 

 more and more susceptible to the influence 

 of external stimulation by different forms of 

 energy. 



This means that it must, under such 

 conditions that it can remain in equilibrium 

 without decomposition, become more and 

 more a machine for uptake and utilization of 

 energy. The fact that the present basis of 

 the system of living creatures in the world 

 is light energy, leads to the view that at a 

 certain stage in the development of colloids, 

 probably long before the appearance of 

 chlorophyll, the colloids began to be affected 

 by the light, and acquired the property of 



