This is a story about the most remarkable little girl in the world. Actually, she is the most remarkable person in the world. She lives in the mountains with her parents, not too far from a great city. Her name is Tinny Rainbird; she is eleven years old. It's not so remarkable that Tinny is so remarkable, she grew up in very unusual circumstances.
About fifteen years ago Tinny's mother and father were graduate students at one of the most famous universities in the world. Her mother was studying physics and her father was studying psychology. Her mother's professors thought she showed the potential to become the greatest physicist there had ever been, and her father's professors thought he showed the potential to become the greatest psychologist there had ever been.
Shortly before Tinny's mother and father were to receive their doctoral degrees they met and fell in love. They got married and left the university. They never did receive their doctorates. Their professors were very disappointed. They thought that was the end of two potentially great careers.
Tinny's mother and father had not given up their fields of study, they couldn't do that. Tinny's mother loved physics with all her heart, just as her father loved psychology, Tinny's parents had decided to dedicate their lives to study. They would live their life together as an experiment. They found a beautiful, remote spot in the mountains and built a house. Just the two of them.
They had chosen the location well. They were virtually able to be self-sufficient, which was their goal. They had fresh water, and all the vegetables and fruit they could use from their large garden and small orchard. Neither of Tinny's parents ate meat because they thought it was unnecessary; and more importantly they had high regard for all forms of life. They also had all the electricity they needed. Tinny's mother had designed an energy system that very efficiently combined solar and wind power. Every few months they would travel into the city to buy any other supplies they needed and many, many books. Not just books on physics and psychology, but books on every area of science and human knowledge.
Tinny's mother and father lived an idyllic life. They lived a life of learning and loving. Tinny's mother was beginning to understand physics better than anyone had ever understood physics before, and her father was beginning to understand psychology better than anyone had ever understood psychology before. They decided the time has right to bring another being into existence. They had a child, a beautiful little girl. They named her Tinny Rainbird. During those first eleven years of Tinny's life her parents included her fully in their loving and learning. Tinny had never experienced a moment when she did not feel loved; and she gave her love in return. Her mother and father never once touched her in anger, nor even spoke a harsh word to her. They had accepted her as a fully equal member of the family from the day she was conceived. As Tinny grew she watched her mother and father work and love and learn. It was only natural that she also worked and loved and learned.
Tinny never went to school, and her mother and father never taught her in any formal manner. Tinny had been welcome in all her mother's and father's conversations, even those of a most technical and philosophical nature. Whenever Tinny asked a question she would get a good answer in words she could understand. She never learned there are some things a child couldn't understand. Tinny loved to learn. By the time she was eleven years old she could understand physics, psychology, and many other areas of knowledge as well as most university professors. Tinny didn't realise this has unusual; she had never met another person other than her mother and father. She really was a most remarkable little girl.
Tinny had a favourite place where she would go when she wanted to be alone and think. It was a small grassy glen, surrounded by trees, where the sun would shine through the leaves bathing her in streams of light. She was not happy today, as was often the case lately. It was not her home or family which made her unhappy. It was the world outside she had never seen. Her mother and father were always totally honest with her; and when Tinny asked questions about how things were in the rest of the world, they told her the truth. There was crime and violence. Many people did not treat each other in a loving manner. There were many sad people whose lives had been hurt by drugs and alcohol. There were people who were treated as less than equal because of their colour or sex or age. There were people starving because others took far more than was right. There were people who would pollute and destroy the environment for profit. There were people fighting each other to prove theirs was the right religion. There were nations fighting each other to prove theirs was the right political system. There were wars where millions died. And there was the threat of nuclear war; a nuclear war which could destroy all life on the planet.
Although all of those things saddened Tinny greatly, she knew there was hope. There were many good people in the world, and given enough time they would right all the wrongs of the world. The worry which crept into Tinny's thoughts more and more lately was, ''but would there be time?'' Tinny knew there was the chance, any moment, that the many thousand nuclear armed missiles in the world would be fired off; thus ending any hope for the beautiful future she foresaw. How could this horror be stopped? What could she do to stop it? She had no answer. It was these thoughts which saddened her today.
She had been sitting with her legs crossed and her back straight. It was a posture for meditation she had learned from her mother and father. She thought of her parents now, dying in a nuclear blast. ''I wish there was something I could do'', she thought. A tear formed in her eye and slowly ran down her cheek. Her vision blurred for a moment, and when it cleared there was a man standing in front of her. He was an old man with white hair and a white beard. He wore a simple white robe. The light from the sun streaming in through the leaves seemed attracted to him. He was very bright; almost, but not quite, too bright to look at. Tinny felt no fear; she could sense his gentleness and love. She could also sense a special power about him.
Tinny asked, ''Who are you?''
He answered, ''I am a philosopher-scientist; I have come because I heard your wish.''
TINNY: How could you hear my wish? I didn't say it aloud, I thought it.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: A thought speaks as loudly as a word. I heard you and have come to grant your wish. I could see the purity of your unselfish desire. You didn't ask for yourself, you asked for the world.
TINNY: Surely others have wished the same thing. Surely others have wished there was something they could do to save the world from destruction.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Yes, many have made that wish, but it is such a special wish that it is very hard to grant. You are the first capable of having that wish come true.
TINNY: What makes me different?
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: It is your innocence, allowing you to ask such a question, which is part of the answer. Your mind has been free of limits; you have been able to see truth. Through you a door has been opened to a higher level of human consciousness. Someday all will be as you are.
TINNY: I don't feel special. I just feel like me.
PHlLOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: No one person on this planet has ever seen so clearly the true nature of our existence. In your mind is locked the knowledge which will allow your wish to be granted. It is my task to help you unlock that treasure.
TINNY: I'll do anything to help save the world from destruction.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: The problems of the world are very complex, so the answers will not be simple ones. At first the things we must discuss may not seem like they could possibly help solve the world's problems; but eventually it will become clear how all this knowledge is necessary to help save the world.
TINNY: I believe you. I'll work really hard to learn all this knowledge.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: I know you will. It won't be hard because I will tell you nothing you don't already know. I'll just help you to better understand the implications of the knowledge you already have.
TINNY: Can we start soon?
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: We can begin right away?
TINNY: Where will we start?
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Where do you think would be the most appropriate place to begin?
TINNY: At the beginning I guess; but I'm not sure where that is.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Existence itself has no beginning, it has always been. So let's start with the beginning of this material universe. Tell me how that came about.
TINNY: Mother and I have discussed that many times. It is said all physical existence began with an event called the 'Big Bang.'
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: I see, and what exactly was the Big Bang?
TINNY: Well, Big Bang was the name given to a theory which said: at its beginning, all the matter of the entire universe was together in one place. The temperature and pressure were so great that matter couldn't remain in such a condition. A tremendous explosion was believed to have then taken place, which threw all that matter outwards to become the physical universe.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: I see some difficulties with that theory, but go on would you. Explain in detail how that beginning matter became the universe.
TINNY: I've had some doubts about the early part of that theory myself; but I think the explanation it offers after those first moments is quite good. Very early, as the universe was expanding, it contained lots of electromagnetic radiation and a large number of subatomic particles, such as electrons, protons, neutrons, and many others.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Where did all those particles come from?
TINNY: All radiation is made of up of little packages of energy, called photons. It would also be fair to call photons, light energy. Photons usually travel at the speed of light; but, during that early period they were all packed so tightly together that they couldn't move without bumping into each other. When two photons with sufficient energy collide they produce pairs of material particles. For example, if photons of a certain energy were to collide, that collision would produce both an electron and the antiparticle of an electron, called a positron.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Is that how all the subatomic particles were produced?
TINNY: There might be hundreds of different kinds of particles in existence; many of those would have been produced by collisions between photons of light. There are other processes which can result in the creation of the various subatomic particles, but those processes would be difficult to explain.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: What are the most commonly known particles?
TINNY: Probably the electron, the proton, and the neutron. Those are the particles which make up the atoms of all the different elements.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Is that what happened next? Did the atoms form?
TINNY: No, the universe was still so hot and dense that all of those first particles which formed were immediately destroyed. Physicists call it annihilated, which means they changed back into energy, to photons. During that period the universe was continually expanding and cooling.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: What was the next step?
TINNY: The universe got big enough and cool enough so that most of the photons of light energy quit colliding with each other; at that point all of the particles which had not been annihilated remained in existence. The universe kept expanding and cooling, but it now consisted of stable electrons, protons, neutrons, and other subatomic particles.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Did all of those particles act randomly, or did they follow any rules?
TINNY: Everything in the universe appears to follow certain rules. There are the four very basic forces of physics which seem to govern the behaviour of particles. They are the strong nuclear force, the electromagnetic force, the weak nuclear force, and gravity.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Are you sure those are four separate forces?
TINNY: Actually, I think there is just one primary law but in various situations we see different aspects of that one law working. Since we can't see the connection between the different aspects of the one law we think of them as separate laws. The four basic laws of physics are our perception of the result of that one primary law in action.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Has anyone ever been able to prove that idea?
TINNY: Not yet, but I feel sure it will be proven. I have my own description of that one law. Do you want to hear it? It's quite different from the way physicists usually describe our reality.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Remember, I said I was a philosopher-scientist. I am more interested in finding truth than I am in how that truth is worded.
TINNY: My understanding of the one law is that all sub-particles must organise themselves in the most complex arrangement possible, given the limits of their environment, such is the essential nature of all physical forms. What we see as the basic laws of physics are the particles going about the business of carrying out that requirement.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: That is a very revolutionary way to view the one prime law. I'm sure it will arise again as we discuss the true nature of existence, but for now go on with your explanation of how the universe came to be.
TINNY: The next change which took place when the universe had expanded and cooled a bit more was the joining of many of the protons with neutrons.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Why did they join together?
TINNY: Because of one of those four basic forces I was telling you about. The strong nuclear force binds the nucleus of the atom together. Protons and neutrons joining together form the nuclei of all atoms.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Can you tell me why the protons and neutrons didn't join together earlier, perhaps when they first formed?
TINNY: Yes, the strong nuclear force has a certain amount of strength. When the universe was too hot and too dense there were other forces acting on the proton and neutron which were more powerful than the strong nuclear force.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: So for certain natural laws to be able to take affect the state of the universe must be just right.
TINNY: That's correct. The environment determines what will take place.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: What if we change just one word of that last statement, the word 'will' to the word 'can'?
TINNY: The environment determines what can take place. That's more what I really meant to say.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: I thought so. Sometimes little words which mean almost the same thing can make a big difference.
TINNY: Anyway, now the still expanding universe is filled with photons of light, free electrons, free protons, and proton/neutron pairs. A single proton is the nucleus of a hydrogen atom, and two proton/neutron pairs form the nucleus of a helium atom. Hydrogen and helium are the two simplest elements.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: I'll bet you're going to tell me that as the universe continued to cool another one of those four basic forces of physics began to exercise its influence over the matter in the universe.
TINNY: That's right. It was the electromagnetic force. One of the things the electromagnetic force does is bind the electron to the nucleus of the atom. So now the single protons captured one electron each and made hydrogen atoms; and the double proton/neutron pairs captured two electrons each and made helium atoms. Because there were more single protons than proton/neutron pairs there was several times as much hydrogen as helium created.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: That's quite amazing isn't it? The universe started out as energy and later became filled with atoms of hydrogen and helium. Could things have been different than that?
TINNY: Nope. As long as physical law remains unchanged the universe would develop that same way every time.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Do you mean to say physical universes have come into existence more than once?
TINNY: I'm not sure. I don't think there is any way to know.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: The answer will come to you; but let's continue on with your story.
TINNY: As all those hydrogen atoms, helium atoms, subatomic particles, and photons of light energy which made up the universe kept expanding and cooling, another of the four basic forces of physics was having a lot of effect on the matter then in existence. That force was gravity, which was quite powerful when all the matter of the whole universe occupied a very small volume of space compared to the size of the universe today. Gravity broke that mass of hydrogen and helium up into great gaseous clouds. Gravity within those great clouds of gas formed many billions of smaller clouds of hydrogen and helium.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: And what names do we give to those different sized clouds of hydrogen and helium gas?
TINNY: The great gaseous clouds formed galaxies. The smaller clouds of hydrogen and helium formed the stars. We live in one of those galaxies which formed; we call it the Milky Way Galaxy. Our sun is one of the many billions of stars which later formed.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: About how many stars are in the Milky Way Galaxy?
TINNY: A huge number, maybe one hundred billion stars.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: And how many galaxies in the known universe?
TINNY: Perhaps about the same number as there are stars in the Milky Way Galaxy, one hundred billion or more.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: If those numbers are right and each galaxy had about the same number of stars that would mean there were as many as ten thousand billion billion stars in the known universe. Do you mean to say all those stars came from that original hydrogen and helium gas?
TINNY: I do, but it wasn't quite that simple.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: What do you mean?
TINNY: Most of those first stars which formed no longer exist. Since the only two elements in the universe at that time were hydrogen and helium, the first stars which formed were giant stars, made up totally of those two gases. Those early stars were called first generation stars. Most were so massive that they collapsed in on themselves, then blew apart in great explosions called supernovas. When those giant stars collapsed, the pressure pushed their hydrogen and helium atoms together with so much force that they merged into one another, forming larger atoms. That process is called nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion is the process which allows stars to burn for billions of years. It is also the process which formed virtually all of the other elements that exist in the universe.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Are you saying that all of the different elements such as carbon, oxygen, sulfur, lead, gold, uranium, and others formed from hydrogen and helium gas in the center of stars?
TINNY: That's right, over 100 different elements formed through the fusion process during the normal life cycle of those first stars, and at the moment when particularly massive stars explode as supernovas; but, some of those elements were so radioactive they didn't survive for very long. There are less than one hundred natural elements now left on our planet. The gold in this ring I'm wearing used to be in the middle of a star.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Amazing.
TINNY: It sure is. I like to think that I'm wearing a piece of a star on my finger.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: What happened to all of those different elements which formed?
TINNY: All of those new elements now combined, throughout the ever cooling and expanding universe, with the already existing hydrogen and helium atoms, other free particles, and photons. Then second and subsequent generations of stars began to form. They formed much the same way as did the first generation stars which were made only of hydrogen and helium.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Using our star, the sun, as an example would you explain in some detail how this formation takes place?
TINNY: As space was then filled with different sorts of particles, gases, and chunks of matter, there were places where more matter had accumulated than others. In those places the gravity would be greater, causing other bits of matter and gases in surrounding space to gather in those areas of highest gravity. The centres of those accumulations of gaseous and solid matter became hotter and hotter until the solid matter evaporated; the resulting mixture of elements began to glow, radiating heat and light. Our sun was one of those stars which formed in that manner.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Was our sun the same then as it is now?
TINNY: No, it had not stabilised at that early moment in its life. Due to the way gases coalesce, or come together, they tend to start swirling in a circular motion. So the various gases and solid matter which were to become our sun started swirling around; and as that swirling material formed a flattened sphere, that sphere began turning on its axis. The more the sphere contracted the faster it would spin. As the sun spun at high speed it threw off some of its substance, which streamed outwards from the fast moving equator. As the sun threw off that material the speed of rotation was slowed. After a number of cycles of expansion and contraction our sun stabilised to roughly the size it is now.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Is our sun a very large or unusual star?
TINNY: No, our sun is a very average star of a type called a yellow dwarf. There are many millions or billions like it in our Milky Way Galaxy. In the known universe there would be trillions of stars like our sun.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: What happened to all the matter which was thrown off by our sun as it was rotating so rapidly during its early development?
TINNY: That matter, combined with the other material already rotating along a plane from the sun's equator, coalesced into spheres called planets which orbit the sun. The small inner planets being formed of the heavier elements, and the larger outer planets being formed largely of various gases.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: You said that there were trillions of stars like our sun. Would they have planets also?
TINNY: Probably all or most types of stars have planets. All stars similar to our sun would have formed the same way as our sun; therefore, any star which formed in that manner would have planets orbiting it. In fact it would have small heavy planets in the closer orbits and larger gaseous planets in the outer orbits.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: That makes me wonder about all sorts of possibilities.
TINNY: Me too.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Would you explain how our planet, the earth, actually developed?
TINNY: As all that matter was being thrown off while our sun developed, some large part of the heavier elements along with gases and other lighter elements began to condense around an area of high density and gravity about 93 million miles from the sun. The process would have looked very much like a smaller version of the sun's beginning, except that matter was generally much heavier, there was much less of it, and it didn't become as hot as it condensed into a sphere.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: It did become hot though, didn't it?
TINNY: Much hotter than it is now. With all the pressure, friction, and radiation the earth became a molten ball. Most of the heavier elements such as iron and elements chemically attracted to iron sank to the centre; and the lighter elements and others chemically attracted to those lighter elements rose to the surface.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Why is the earth no longer a molten ball?
TINNY: Most of it still is, but that hot core is now miles below the surface where we usually never see the molten material, except where it breaks through in places such as volcanoes. The surface, though, cooled into a hard crust consisting of those mainly lighter materials. The different continents are really giant plates of stone which float around very slowly on the surface of that molten inner core.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: As we live here on the surface of the earth things don't seem at all like you describe them.
TINNY: That's one of the most important lessons I have learned; that which seems so obviously true in our everyday lives may turn out to be something totally different when looked at from a broader perspective.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: That is a very important philosophical concept.
TINNY: Is it?
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Yes my child, it is; but for now let's get back to the explanation of how the earth developed. What happened next while the hard crust has forming over the molten core?
TINNY: Well, in the earth's crust, and between the crust and the molten core, were trapped many different atoms in the form of gases, such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. Those gases and others had largely remained separate elements as they traveled through space. Now forced together in a closed environment, very hot and under pressure, some of those gases began to combine in new relationships with other gases. That new relationship between elements which developed we now call chemistry. For example, instead of hydrogen and oxygen gas existing only as separate elements, they now existed in that new united relationship as water vapour; two atoms of hydrogen (H), linked up with one atom of oxygen (O), described in terms of chemistry as H2O. Other gases present at the time, carbon (C), nitrogen (N), and hydrogen, also formed simple molecules such as ammonia (NH3) and methane (CH4).
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: What happened to those different gases, single elements, and compound molecules which existed then?
TINNY: Those four gases, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and their compounds such as water, ammonia, and methane became the main constituents of the early atmosphere of our planet. They formed an atmosphere by escaping from their entrapment inside and under the crust of the earth through volcanoes and other breaks in the earth's surface. Much of that early atmosphere escaped into space, but some was saved by the gravitational effect of the earth which held those active gas molecules close to the surface of the planet.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Did that early atmosphere have an effect on the surface of the planet?
TINNY: It changed the surface of the earth greatly. Since much of that new atmosphere was water vapour it caused torrential rains to fall from the sky to the cooling, but still very hot, surface of the planet. For millions of years that water would fall and evaporate only to fall again, in endless cycles. The rain contained various other chemical compounds including newly formed acids. The effect of those constant heavy downpours, through corrosion and erosion, was to break up some of the surface rock and wash it down to the lower areas on the planet forming seas.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Were those seas like the seas today?
TINNY: No, they would have been much thicker with various chemical compounds but less salty. Also at that time they had no life in them, only simple chemicals. The seas of that early period have been called a 'primeval soup'. They were probably so full of other molecules in addition to water that they weren't as clear as the seas are now.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: And of course, the reason they had no life in them was because there has no life on the planet then.
TINNY: That's right, but it wouldn't have been too long after those first seas formed till the chemistry which was taking place, between the different elements and simple chemical compounds, formed more complicated molecules which still exist in all life today.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Which molecules are those?
TINNY: Those molecules are called amino-acids. They are the building blocks of all the different proteins which make up our bodies and the bodies of all plants and animals.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: What are amino-acids made up of, and how did they form?
TINNY: Amino acids are organic molecules made up of basic carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. Amino acids are just like the earlier chemical compounds, only more complex. Amino acids come together naturally when the conditions are right, just as earlier chemical compounds such as water did. Those varied compounds form because some atoms have a chemical affinity for certain other atoms. It's as if certain atoms like each other's company and want to stand next to each other, sharing some of their parts. When they do that, which atoms choose to stand next to which other atoms, how many atoms stand together, and where they stand determines which chemical molecule they form. It is those different relationships between atoms which causes them to show different characteristics when combined, as when two gases, hydrogen and oxygen, unite together in the right way they become liquid water.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: So whenever a sea full of chemicals forms into a 'primeval soup', amino-acids will develop in that chemical sea.
TINNY: That's not so easy to say for sure. There was more happening at that time than those chemicals just sitting quietly in the sea. There was lightning and much more radiation coming from both the sun and the earth than there is today. The lightning, radiation, and probably other factors caused the chemicals to react to each other in ways they wouldn't have otherwise. In a situation like that the lightning and radiation would be called a catalyst, which prompts other things to happen but is not part of the final outcome.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: And what happened next after the amino-acids had developed?
TINNY: Molecules kept getting bigger and more complex in their organisation. Many of those molecules included carbon atoms, and are often referred to as organic molecules. Some of those organic molecules found they had an effect on other smaller molecules or parts of molecules around them. That happened because of the way the atoms lined up inside certain types of large molecules. Atoms and pieces of organic molecules, outside those large organic molecules, lined up next to the sections of those large molecules which they had the greatest affinity for. Molecules which have that ability are called replicators. Replicator molecules could produce either copies of themselves or chemically mirrored images of themselves made up of the different atoms which were most attracted to them.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: That was a very complicated answer. What does it mean more simply?
TINNY: Some molecules gained the ability to make new molecules out of the raw material around them in that primeval soup. Those new molecules would be either copies of the original or mirror images of the original molecule.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: I think understand what you're saying. Were there only a few kinds of molecules or many different kinds in that early soup of chemicals in the seas?
TINNY: Those early atoms and molecules joined together in every possible way they could given their circumstances. There would have been many different molecules made up of all the various groupings of atoms which could take place. Some of the new molecules would not have existed very long though.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Why is that?
TINNY: Some of those groupings of atoms which formed would have become very stable molecules, and some would have been quite unstable. Those unstable molecules could easily break apart into their individual atoms or smaller molecules. So that stable molecules would continue to exist as they were, and the unstable ones would break up; their atoms would then be used up creating more of the stable molecules, and would no longer be available to make up the unstable molecules. The process is a form of natural selection among chemicals. Those possessing the characteristics which allow them to survive in a given environment will continue to exist, and those which don't have such characteristics cease to exist.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: How did that affect those replicator molecules which had the ability to create other molecules?
TINNY: There were only a certain number of molecules which could exist in the early seas because there was only so much raw material to be used in making molecules. Any molecule which could replicate itself would become an increasingly large proportion of the total molecule population of the seas.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: If that was the case wouldn't there eventually be only one kind of organic molecule left in the sea, the one which was the most successful, stable replicator?
TINNY: You would think so, but as always things are more complex than they first appear. In those early times the replicator molecules were not perfect, sometimes they would form new molecules which were different than the original. Also, there was lots of stimulation from the environment which caused alterations in some molecular forms. Those changes could have been brought about by the high levels of radiation, lightning, and other factors which influence chemical reactions. There were always new types of molecules coming into existence, among which could be more stable replicators, better replicators, faster replicators, or molecules with some other new characteristic which increased their chances for survival.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Was there any major new characteristic which came along to aid survival at that time?
TINNY: The main one I know of was the ability gained by some molecules to break up other existing molecules into their basic parts and use those parts to further their own purposes. Molecules with that new ability could be called proto-animals because they were the earliest molecular forms to break down other molecules and use the components for their own benefit. That process is chemically similar to animals who eat other animals and plants, thereby breaking down and utilising their molecules by digestion.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Are you saying that those early organic molecules which had the ability to break down and use the component parts of other molecules were actually the first animals? I thought plants developed before animals.
TINNY: No, I wasn't saying they were really animals, just that some early organic molecules had the ability to 'eat' other molecular forms in a way which is characteristic of animals; but those early organic molecules 'ate' in a much simpler way. If you consider the first life forms on our planet to be one-celled organisms, then it is perhaps true that plants developed before animals; but, as I come to know more about how life developed it becomes harder to say exactly at what point life began.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Didn't God create all life?
TINNY: Well that certainly changes the direction of the discussion we have been having. That doesn't sound like a very scientific question.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: It is because you live at this particular time in history which causes you to perceive that question as not being scientific. For thousands of years in the history of science queries about God's nature would have been among the most important scientific questions.
TINNY: I see what you mean. Before what has been called the Scientific Revolution, a few hundred years ago, science had been very different. From ancient times the goals of science had been wisdom, understanding natural law, and learning to live in harmony with the natural order. Knowledge was pursued to better understand the will of God and thereby know the right way to live.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Was that a good or a bad way to view science?
TINNY: That's hard to say. We've come a long way since that time. Many scientists and philosophers have said a view of reality which included God was not needed. In many ways when science was linked to religious beliefs scientific progress was held back, and in some cases people were even forced to hold religious beliefs that science had proved to be wrong. I guess my answer to your question is that the old view of science had both good and bad features.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Simultaneously one and different.
TINNY: I'll bet you didn't think I'd know what you mean by the statement, 'simultaneously one and different.' It means that in any question where it seems the answer must be one or the other, both answers are often true.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: I had no doubt you would know what meant. I only mention that idea now because I expect it will be an idea which will arise often in our talk. Anyway, back to our discussion about organic molecules.
TINNY: Oh yes. Well, I had just been saying that atoms of the basic elements present on our planet as it formed had been developing into more and more complex molecules. In particular organic molecules containing carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen had developed the ability to replicate themselves and to break down other molecules so their chemical parts could be used.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: You had been explaining that those molecules kept developing new characteristics, allowing them to be more stable than other molecules in the primeval sea, and ensuring their survival.
TINNY: Right. Since some of the organic molecules now living in the sea could break down other molecules and use their parts, any molecules which developed a protection against those predator molecules would have a definite survival advantage. Some molecules now developed a covering which would isolate them from the surrounding environment, and protect them from other molecules who would otherwise have been able to destroy them. Now that organic molecules could exist within their chemical shells, safe from the external environment, they continued to develop into larger and more complex forms.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: It almost sounds like those organic molecules you have been describing are the same as the first one-celled living organisms.
TINNY: There are lots of steps which we didn't discuss, but that's a fairly accurate appraisal. By the time the grouping of molecules surrounded by a chemical shell added the ability to use energy directly from the environment, as from sunlight, it would be correct to consider them to be early one-celled plants. They were still very simple compared to most plants around today; but yes, they were plant life.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: As we talked about all this it only took a short while to explain, but did that progressive development happen very quickly?
TINNY: The opposite. It took as much as a billion years for some of those stages in development to be reached. Even some of the very small changes would have taken millions of years.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: And to think, that was just the beginning of what has been called life.
TINNY: You say, ''what has been called life''; do you mean that's not where life began?
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: I might answer that question with another. What is life?
TINNY: Life is usually considered to be the conditions which distinguish plants and animals from inorganic objects.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: And that point is usually considered to begin with the one-celled plants and animals; but what are the actual characteristics which something must have to be considered alive?
TINNY: Three of the main characteristics are reproduction, growth through metabolism, and the ability to adapt to the environment.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: And would you explain what metabolism is?
TINNY: It's the process by which other organic forms are broken down so their component parts can be used for food.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: If those three characteristics distinguish what is life from what isn't, then do you think that the early one-celled organisms were the first to show those characteristics?
TINNY: Actually I don't think they were the first. The organic molecules we discussed showed those same characteristics although perhaps much more simply. They replicated either their own form or chemically mirrored images, they broke down other organic molecules to use their components, and their forms altered to best survive in the changing environment.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: So it appears that the early one-celled plants and animals were not the first material forms which could be considered alive.
TINNY: I don't think it would be easy to find the exact point when life began, because as those three characteristics of life are expressed more and more simply there never seems to be an exact point where the simplest manifestation of a characteristic becomes non-expression of a characteristic.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: It would be more correct to call the point where inorganic matter develops into simple plants and animals the beginning of biological life, rather than the beginning of life. Life itself can be traced back through an unbroken series of events to the beginning of the physical universe. Life is an essential characteristic of matter, which results in activity.
TINNY: Yes, and along the way as matter organises into more and more complex groupings it shows an increasingly complex range of characteristics, some of those being major new characteristics. Even those major new characteristics, though, had earlier and more simple expression in less complex groupings of matter.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: What would be the major new levels of expression of material development between the beginning of the physical universe and biological life?
TINNY: First there was light, the photons of electromagnetic energy. Those early photons created particles of matter, the subatomic particles, when they collided with other photons. As the universe cooled and expanded some of those different types of subatomic particles joined together in space or in stars forming all the different kinds of atoms. Then as planets developed, the different atoms found they were able to combine with other atoms to form molecules. Those molecules developed and became more complicated until they manifested the three main characteristics which distinguish biological life. The major levels in the sequence at that point were light, subatomic particles, atoms, molecules, plant and animal life.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: So biological life is not something new that began from nothing, but was the end product of a long series of events, which had taken place as matter organised into more and more complex forms, from the beginning of the universe.
TINNY: Since that is how it happened there is justification to believe life actually began as the universe began; that every material form from the simplest subatomic particle, manifests some characteristic of life.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: So then biological life is just a stage in the progressive development of the material universe.
TINNY: My ancestors must include animals and plants, rocks and chemicals, planets and stars, molecules and atoms, sub-atomic particles and light.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Those were indeed your ancestors.
TINNY: And I thought it was amazing to wear a piece of a star on my finger. I was once a star, and I was once light.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Perhaps you still are.
TINNY: What do you mean?
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Think about it; but, for now tell me what took place during that continued process of development from the early one-celled plants and animals
TINNY: That's an awful lot to tell about. I'll have to be very brief and skip from point to point. As I said, the early complex organic molecules should probably be the point from which biological life is considered to have begun. The transition from that molecular stage to bacteria and the first one-celled organisms was the beginning of plant life.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: About how long ago did all that take place?
TINNY: It was over three billion years ago. That's three thousand million years ago. Anyway, the atmosphere had no oxygen when the first biological life developed. The first bacteria which developed did not need oxygen to live. Bacteria used the process of fermentation to convert their food sources to energy.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Where did all the oxygen in our atmosphere come from?
TINNY: Those bacteria which used fermentation to get energy to survive didn't give off any oxygen, but the fermentation process wasn't a very efficient one. As I had said earlier, changes keep coming along as the environment allows, whereby the organisms become more efficient survivors. The change that took place next was from fermentation to a new process called respiration, which was a much more efficient way to break down food sources for energy. While the fermentation process didn't produce any oxygen the new process, plant respiration, gave off oxygen as a by-product.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Did those early life forms, which didn't use oxygen, all of a sudden change and become oxygen producers?
TINNY: No, changes usually move in a series of small steps rather than large sudden jumps. There was an intermediate step, organisms called blue-green algae, which used a combination of fermentation and respiration. They would have been the first living forms to put oxygen into the atmosphere.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: How complex were those early bacteria and one-celled organisms?
TINNY: Very complicated as organic molecules, but extremely simple as one-celled organisms. The earliest one-celled organisms were just varied organic molecular combinations housed within a chemical shell, performing different functions. They didn't have a cell nucleus. Over time one grouping of molecules within the cell took more and more responsibility for organising the activity of the varied molecular groups housed within the chemical shell, for the benefit of the whole. That organising complex of molecules became the cell nucleus.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: And were all those early one-celled organisms plants or were there one-celled animals also?
TINNY: Although the first one-celled organisms could have been plants, it wasn't all that long until one-celled animal life existed also. It's important to remember that those early life forms were very similar in basic structure, whether they were plants or animals.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: What is the difference between plant life and animal life?
TINNY: Probably the two greatest differences are that plants give off oxygen as a product of their respiration and animals give off carbon-dioxide. The other main difference is that plants take their energy needs directly from the environment while animals tend to take their energy indirectly, by breaking down the molecules of other living organisms. There is also a difference in the way plants and animals seek their food. Plants tend to be either stationary or use involuntary movement, for example floating through the sea. Animals on the other hand tend to use voluntary movement to seek their food sources.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: So at that point in the history of our planet we had both one-celled plants and one-celled animals existing, and the atmosphere beginning to contain oxygen. Did those one-celled plants and animals live both in the seas and on the land?
TINNY: In the beginning they all lived in the seas. It would still be a billion years or so until either plants or animals could live on the land. In fact it would be almost that long until one-celled organisms developed into multi-celled organisms. During that time many, many different types of one-celled plants and animals developed, some being successful and surviving, but most failing and disappearing. During those billions of years the atmosphere was constantly increasing its percentage of oxygen. About five hundred million years ago the first multi-celled plants and animals developed.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: What were those early multi-celled plants and animals like?
TINNY: The multi-celled plants would have included various types of seaweed; the animals would have included forms of sponges, later jellyfish and non-segmented worms. It was those forms of life which filled the seas until the early hard shelled organisms like snails and clams developed. Then came segmented worms and fish.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: All that development seems to be in the sea. Wasn't there anything on land?
TINNY: The first living things to go on to the land were plants, and that migration didn't take place until fish developed in the sea.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: How long ago did the first plants come on to land, and what were they like?
TINNY: The first land plants were a type of moss, and that would have probably been over four hundred million years ago. A hundred million years or so after the mosses went on to land there would have been early trees developing. It has during that period when the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere reached a level about the same as he have today.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Were the trees responsible for the great increase of oxygen in the atmosphere?
TINNY: They were. Trees give off huge amounts of oxygen compared to any other plants. That's why it's so important for us to make sure we don't destroy too many of our forests. Animal life and human life both need lots of trees to have good air to breathe.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Could we go back and finish the story of how life developed?
TINNY: Not too long after plants went on to the land, animal life followed. The first animals to make that move were amphibians. Amphibians have the characteristics of sea animals in early life, then move on to land for the latter part of their lives. The amphibian stage of development was followed by reptiles. Several hundred million years ago the first birds and mammals developed, to be followed by the modern trees, grasses, and flowering plants. The dinosaurs would have been dying out about the same time as the earliest primates were developing, sixty or seventy million years ago.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Those early primates were very different than human beings though, weren't they?:
TINNY: Very, very different. They weren't even like monkeys, the most common primates today. Monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees are usually called higher primates. Their line of development separated from the original primate line about forty million years ago.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: What about human beings, are they also higher primates?
TINNY: Many people consider that to be the case.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: But is it true?
TINNY: Could I finish the story of the progression from the early primates to human beings before I answer that question?
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Whatever you like.
TINNY: The members of the higher primate line, which broke off from the early primates, would have looked very much like monkeys look today. The line of development separated again about thirty million years ago when a new line broke away from the monkey line and developed into the great apes. The great apes are hominoids such as the orangutan, gorillas, and chimpanzees. It was a further split from that hominoid line which developed into the homo-sapiens.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Homo-sapiens is the technical name for human beings, isn't it?
TINNY: That's right. The closest of the hominoids to human beings are chimpanzees. Even those lines separated ten million years, or more, ago.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: So the line which led to homo-sapiens has been separate from the great apes for about ten million years.
TINNY: That's how it seems.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Were apes our direct ancestors?
TINNY: It would be more correct to say that we share common ancestors with apes.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: Doesn't that make you feel a bit strange to know you are related to monkeys and gorillas?
TINNY: Having apes as distant relations doesn't seem nearly as strange as do my earlier ancestors. My earlier ancestors were reptiles, amphibians, fish, worms, amoebas, bacteria, molecules, stars, atoms, subatomic particles, and light.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: You're right. With ancestors as diverse as all those it wouldn't seem so amazing to think that our ancestors ten million years ago looked much like apes: what happened to the homo-sapien line of development in the last ten million years?
TINNY: Changes take place within all levels of material existence as life seeks to find ways to be most successful in any given environment. Our early ancestors developed the ability to walk on two legs instead of four. The feet specialised in walking, the hands specialised in holding things and manipulating objects. The brain size was getting constantly larger. Those early ancestors became better thinkers, better with their hands, and began to use those combined abilities to make tools and various other artifacts which increased their chances of survival in the environment of that time. Those trends of development continued until perhaps fifty thousand years ago, by which time our ancestors were essentially the same as us; they were the early modern homo-sapiens. We really haven't changed much physically in the last forty or fifty thousand years.
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: So where do we go from here?
TINNY: Do you mean where does the human species go or where do we go next in our discussion?
PHILOSOPHER-SCIENTIST: I have some questions I would like to ask you about what we have already discussed. It all sounded quite plausible, but is it exactly the way things really happened?
TINNY: Probably not exactly as things happened, but fairly close.
