19 THE RISE OF LIFE
t sucions ered perimes in every galaxy.
Certainly terribly exotic in t animate us. If you e anot, s of a fe togetions to form some sugars, acids, and ot lives. As Daes: “t tances from hing else.”
ttom line is t life is amazing and gratifying, per edly attest existences. to be sure, many of tails of life’s beginnings remain pretty imponderable. Every scenario you ions necessary for life involves er—from ttle pond”
s t are no popularcandidates for life’s beginnings—but all t t to turn monomers intopolymers (o begin to create proteins) involves o biology as“deion linkages.” As one leading biology text puts it, a tiny ofdiscomfort, “Researc sucions icallyfavorable in tive sea, or indeed in any aqueous medium, because of tionla is a little like putting sugar in a glass of er and become a cube. Its someure it does. tual cry of all ttlearcane for our purposes it is enougo kno if you make monomers t turn into polymers—except ot unansions.
One of t surprises in t decades ory life arose. ell into t t life urous souls felt t maybe it back 2.5 billion years. But t date of 3.85 billion years is stunningly early. Eart become solid until about 3.9 billion years ago.
“e can only infer from ty t it is not ‘difficult’ for life of bacterial grade toevolve on planets e conditions,” Stepimes in 1996. Or as it else “life, arising assoon as it could, o be.”
Life emerged so sly, in fact, t some auties t must eart inguisory. t Lord Kelvin y as