We're still in the grace period.

No complete replicator has yet evolved on planet Earth --
only partial ones requiring some components to be supplied
by their environment.

Certainly, lifeforms have some control over their surroundings:
they move or cling, secrete or absorb, kill or cooperate.  But
none has enough control to ensure reproduction.  All rely on
Providence.

Maybe somewhere, for some inorganic reason, near the ocean's
surface a dark oily layer formed, beneath which RNA molecules
danced the Grand Chain, protected from the sun's harsh rays yet
fed by energy-rich molecules diffusing down.

Perhaps life began in a place which is still the source of all
the eels of the world:  the Sargasso Sea.
--
Cathy
---
þ RIMEGate(tm)/RGXPost V1.14 at BBSWORLD * Info{at}bbsworld.com

---
 * RIMEGate(tm)V10.2áÿ* RelayNet(tm) NNTP Gateway * MoonDog BBS
 * RgateImp.MoonDog.BBS at 10/18/04 10:15:55 PM