Adopted from the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Goldilocks Conditions are when conditions are “just right” for something new and more complex to emerge.
The Earth is estimated to be 4.54 billion years old, plus or minus about 50 million years.The earliest life forms we know of were microscopic organisms (microbes) that left signals of their presence in rocks about 3.7 billion years old. The signals consisted of a type of carbon molecule that is produced by living things.Early microbes, in their struggle for life, clashed with and consumed hydrogen gas. Hundreds of millions of years passed. These microbes evolved into prokaryotes and adapted further, finding energy in sunlight. Then, in a process called photosynthesis, they flooded the atmosphere with oxygen.
The rise of oxygen formed a protective layer around the Earth and also helped cool the Earth, eventually encasing the planet with ice in a series of “Snowball Earths” 2.4 to 2.2 billion years ago. Some life forms survived, some proliferated, pushing oxygen levels higher. This enabled a greater diversity of life.While the young Earth was a dangerous and unfriendly place, germinating deep in the oceans were the perfect ingredients and conditions for the emergence of life. But what is life? Well, we know that life has four qualities:
Metabolism: the ability to take in energy from surroundings to keep going
Self-regulation: also known as “homeostasis,” an organism’s ability to regulate itself to maintain stability
Reproduction: the ability to create copies, allowing life to preserve itself and go on
Adaptation: the ability to change from generation to generation and become better suited to environments
In nature after a major extinction, the weakest DNA dies off, while strong DNA is retained. Through this many evolved, suvived, thrived, even faded away. But life went on. DNA kept drafting life which we humans map & trace today as “The Tree of Life”.
Humans are relatively newbies. The first human ancestors appeared between five million and seven million years agoAnatomically modern humans emerged around 300,000 years ago in Africa, evolving from Homo heidelbergensis or a similar species and migrating out of Africa, gradually replacing local populations of archaic humans.It was first believed that humans represented the pinnacle of evolution. But as biologists continue to study life on Earth, and as new species are discovered and more evidence comes in, the Tree of Life will continue to grow. We can say with assurance that as humans we are still understanding microbes & their incredible capabilities.
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