Sunday, November 11, 2018

Evolution - What has God got to do with it?



-  2162  -  Evolution on Earth, if diversity of life on Earth is an indication than the diversity of life in the Universe is beyond compression.  It is even beyond our imagination.  The most incomprehensible thing about the Universe and life within it is that we are here trying to comprehend it.
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 ------------------------  2162  -  Evolution -  What has God got to do with it?
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-  If diversity of life on Earth is an indication than the diversity of life in the Universe is beyond compression.  It is even beyond our imagination.  The most incomprehensible thing about the Universe and life within it is that we are here trying to comprehend it.
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-  Even life on Earth is diverse beyond our comprehension.  It starts in the form of microbes that can survive in the most hostile environments imaginable.
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-  In the depths of the Mediterranean Sea microbes were found thriving at 2.5 miles below sea level.   The salt concentration was 10 times higher than seawater.   The pressure was 400 times greater than at sea level.  At those depths there is no oxygen and there is no light.  These organisms are reducing sulfates to run their own metabolism.
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-  In the brine lakes off the coast of Sicily microbes are found living in high concentrations of magnesium chloride.  These microbes are a new group of Archaea that produce methane.  These same microbes could account for the methane atmosphere that has been found on the planet Mars.
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-  Microbes have been found in the hot springs of Yellowstone National Park that are using hydrogen as their primary fuel source.  The temperatures are 170 degrees Fahrenheit.  This is a temperature too high for photosynthesis to exist.  Hydrogen is the most abundant element in the Universe so life elsewhere could be doing the same thing as this life in Yellowstone.
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-  Beneath sheets of ice in Siberia and Antarctica are microbes of bacteria, fungi, and algae thriving in temperatures at 23 degrees Fahrenheit.  Some of these microbes are found at depths over two miles below the surface.  These same microbes are being used to clean up oil spills.  They are the same microbes that turn your milk sour.
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-  Rising 15 stories off the ocean floor at depths of 7,000 feet are hydrothermal vents that spew acidic , mineral rich, 750 F water.  Microbes are feeding off this mineral rich water around volcanic chimneys where no sun light can possible reach.
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-  Dredging up sediment in the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean scientists have uncovered abundant single cell protists called foraminifera.  These soft-shelled animals are living at depths of 7 miles and in pressures 1,100 times greater than at sea level.  The foraminifera are thriving on organic material that sinks into the deepest trenches in the ocean.  Fossil records on these animals indicate they have been around for at least 550,000,000 years.
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-  Endolths and Hypoliths are microbes that live inside rocks.  They have been found 2 miles below the Earth's surface feeding on iron, potassium, and sulfur.  Water is scarce at those depths and this slows down their procreation to where these microbes only reproduce once every 100 years.
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-  The hypoliths microbes live in rocks that are translucent, like quartz, because they are still photosynthetic organism.  Their translucent homes trap moisture and protect them from ultraviolet radiation and harsh winds found in the Antarctic.
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-  There are 50 known species of microbes that live around hydrothermal vents at temperatures over 194 F.  In fact they do not survive above 140 F.  They easily withstand high acidity and high radiation.  These high temperature creatures are used in molecular biology research trying to replicate DNA, a process requiring these same high temperatures.
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-  Microbes have been found swimming in benzene saturated water that is highly toxic.  They have even been found inside the core of a nuclear reactor.  Some of these microbes can withstand a 15,000 gray dose of radiation.  10 gray will kill a human.  1,000 gray dose will kill a cockroach.
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-  Some microbes surviving in a low nutritional environment have evolved metabolic processes that allow them to produce their own sulfur and phosphorus by feeding on their own organic waste.
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-  The diversity of microbe life certainly staggers the imagination.  Life certainly is not as delicate as we once thought it was.  It has been surviving and evolving for 3,600,000,000years on our planet.  More recently on the planet , some 30,000,000 years ago, humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and gibbons evolved from "old world monkeys".  During the next 20,000,000 years our ancestors split off from this distinguished group.  About 8,000,000 years ago hominids diverged from the modern chimpanzees.
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-  Our DNA has 3,000,000,000 base units in each genome and more than 98% is the same as a chimpanzee's.   By DNA measure humans are more like chimps than chimps are like gorillas.  Humans are closer to chimps than two different species of gibbons are to each other.  Excuse me for a moment I need to scratch my behind.
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-  Evolution works very slowly but the original hominid species started in Africa, walking on two feet.  For millions of years multiple bipedal apes evolved.  Radiation caused mutations and some adapted well to their ecological niche.  Natural selection allowed survival of only the species that best adapted to the conditions of a very competitive environment.  About 2,500,000 years ago homo habilis evolved with a larger brain, half the size of ours today.  Using this brain they created the first stone tools.
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-  The two other hominoids homo rudolfensis had a bigger body and homo ergaster had a bigger brain and better tools.  All three homo species lived in Africa at the same time. 
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- About 1,500,000 years ago homo erectus evolved from homo ergaster.  These big brained brutes left Africa and spread across Asia.  Records show that they survived in Asia to as recently as 30,000 years ago.
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-  Another offshoot of homo ergasrer , homo heidelberensis, left Africa and spread across Europe.  Homo neanderthalensis appeared about 230,000 years ago and survived until 30,000 years ago.  About 200,000 years ago homo sapiens arrived on the scene and spread across the globe rapidly replacing all the remaining homo species.  By 30,000 years ago homo sapiens were the sole remaining species, except homo floresiensis, the hobbit like hominids whose bones were recently discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores.
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-  Over the next 30,000  years homo sapiens began growing crops, building civilizations, fighting wars, discovering science, inventing technology, founding religions, and leaning their own history in the bones and dust of the past.
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-    Life is so complicated it is hard to condense it in a single Review  2162.  How could all this possibly happen by accident?  How could I be writing this, and you reading this?  Einstein was right there must be  higher purpose because the most incomprehensible thing is that we are here trying to comprehend it.
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-  November 11, 2018.       583      An Index of other recent Reviews is available.
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 ---------------------   Sunday, November 11, 2018         -------------------------
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