Evolution of life : Overview.
- Aryan Boruah
- Oct 28, 2022
- 6 min read
Evolution of life on earth is probably a unique event in the history of this universe. Why unique ? Because for the time being no other location came to our radar that can support life, place in which life can prosper and thrive. Evolution is not a step nor an event but more appropriately it is a group of events or it can be considered as a process. An endless process which we are part of, we humans are just one of endless number of chapters in the book of evolution of life. And may be Evolution of life on earth is just another book in the cosmic library of life. Evolution of life on earth can be considered merely an accident. Life probably was not destined to emerge in this space rock floating in infinite nothingness. If we were not destined to emerge in this rock then i don’t think we exist for any purpose. What i mean is if we are just bi product of an accidental event happened 3 billion years ago then i don’t think we serve any purpose in this cosmos. Although we human can assign to ourselves a purpose in life, that purpose seems to have no value when we perceive ourselves not as human but as coagulation of plethora molecules interaction with each other which results in the activities that we do in our day to day life. If we zoom out our life and look at it carefully we realise we are so fragile and small. Just zoom out , India, earth, star system, multiple star systems, galaxy, multiple galaxies, cluster of galaxies and it goes on. And since cosmos is ever expanding, this lists will go on forever. So now we stumble into a very fundamental question that came at least once to the mind of the greatest minds ever existed “ WHAT IS OUR PLACE IN THIS COSMOS”. I always wonder about it. Sometimes, i feel bad that i will die one day without knowing the answer to this question. Only time will tell whats out there for me.
Life might be a phenomena of this universe. Just like evaporation, entropy, transpiration, respiration, quantum entanglement life might be a phenomena of this cosmos. And if we are a phenomena then probably life could have evolved in another place across the cosmos. Emergence of life itself is a very critical and complex event that require time and suitable conditions to even get a head start. And the chances of all those conditions to come together is very rare. And chances of creation of human life that to intelligent is stupendously out of question. But it happened, it happened right here. The place where you are standing right now was once a breeding ground for life. It took more more that 3 billion years to reach this stage of evolution. 3 billion years is not a joke, 3 billion years worth of evolution. 3 billion years worth of genetic recombinations and alterations. This is absolutely mind boggling. Life on earth could have been simple but nature chooses the hard way. Life on earth survived through lot of atrocities and catastrophic events happened through out the history of this planet. Life could have perished at any moment throughout the geological time scale but miraculously life found a way, painfully but it did.
Life on earth was simple, then it turned complex and then it turned intelligent. This is the story of life on earth. Not very hard to understand but when we study its biochemistry then it becomes a challenge. Life presented in front of us by nature is not the complete picture. Things we see through our naked eyes is just an outline, beneath lies a whole different universe which is laid hidden by nature. Sometimes i feel like Biomolecule also have consciousness and they interact with each other just like we do. Honestly speaking we are just a holographic projection of all the biochemical processes happening in nature. I mean think about it, the molecules which you are made of, which everything from inanimate to animate made of came from the core of a dying star. This fact is so astounding that it makes me wonder that we are part of this cosmic story just like any other object. It’s like the universe is trying to understand itself through us. Universe trying to understand its origin. But it is not so easy to understand nature at its deepest true form. Countless number of scientists had devoted their entire life to understand its working. But nature is so adamant that it wont easily reveal itself. But sometimes it does, and in simple terms we call it as BREAKTHROUGH in science. It requires a lot of hard work and persistence and a never giving up attitude through out the process of discovery. Sometimes people stand under the light of discovery but fail to recognise it, and those who does recognise its significance they change the world and becomes immortal. Sometimes, I feel like nature choose specific people to reveal its mysteries, i might be wrong but this is what i feel. Lets take a small example, put some thought into it, each and everything that moves, the movement is fundamentally governed by Newton's laws of motion. And the key element in his equations is Calculus. Motion of a car, rocket, bird, comet, planets and even stars can be predicted by this powerful mathematical tool. I mean how can a person come up with an idea sitting in a room wondering about the cosmos that changed the trajectory of mankind forever. Then Einstein came on the way along with Darwin and Feynman, Euler, Clerk Maxwell, Faraday, Nikola Tesla and the list goes on. These people are natures special people. The world we are living in right now is moulded by these people. These people are my idols and i always wanted to live my life the way they lived.
Nature never fall short of surprising me. Each and every time I think about nature, my mind become overwhelmed with thoughts that gives me different insights about life and our place in it. Nature is out there for billions of years and it will be out there probably till eternity. We are just one time temporary passenger on this train of life with the objective of revealing the nature of Nature. I believe the most valuable thing we can pass on to our future generation is Knowledge. Without knowledge progress will come to an halt.
My curiosity about nature increases every time i see some reels based on nature in Instagram. Videography is fine, but when you add music, it reaches a whole new level. The sceneries are just unbelievable and so beautiful. Places like drive way down to Glen Etive in Scottish Highlands, paddling in Dolomites, hiking in Mount St. Piran, boating in Konigssee a natural lake near Austria, hiking in Mont du Dome in Quebec Canada during Autumn, Furka pass in Switzerland, Northern lights and the list goes. People visit these places and take a short clip, add a music mostly from Lord of the Rings and Hobbit and creates a reel. I will attach some reel below which blows my mind whenever i watch it. Theses are my favourite category of reels. Photography and videography is such an amazing skill that can make a useless piece of rock look like one of the most precious object in nature. Seriously hats off to those guys. There is dialogue from the movie Hobbit : the unexpected journey told by Gandalf “ THE WORLD IS NOT IN YOUR BOOKS AND MAPS, ITS OUT THERE “. Whenever I hear this line, i feel different about my life. I recommend all of you to watch the Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings movie series by Peter Jackson. According to me, these are the greatest novel based movie series ever made.
There is a lot to discover in this world but our lives fall short to uncover and live up to our every desire and thought. I believe the greatest and the worst moment of our life is the same - BIRTH. Since birth, we are doomed to die one day and between birth and death, nature gave us a short amount of time to live our lives. So fellow humans always stay curious and never stop wondering.
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