Life

Here’s something pretty trippy to think about.

Go out into the woods somewhere and look around. Notice all the living things, all around you. Take in the smell of grass or trees, and the colorful leaves. Think about all the trillions of microorganisms in the ground, tens of thousands of moss piglets, and the thousands upon thousands of insects.

Now, think about how that all started with one single molecule that replicated itself. All of this life—those trees, the insects, me, you—all of those things began with replication.

That’s right: several billion years ago, a combination of molecules replicated itself, and the code for future replication was also passed along to the copy. That particular combination of molecules is the predecessor for all life on earth (as far as we know).

All of this life on planet Earth—all 550 billion tons of it—came about eons ago, on one fateful day. Why that particular day? Nobody knows, but it’s certain that the early Earth had trillions of little experim…