Question

Three bases of the evolution of living beings on earth

Answer 1

In olden days, people believed that the universe and life on it was an act and result of God’s creation. There was, however, no evidence to support these claims.The early scientists and Greeks believed that life on earth never began on earth itself. They believed that it came from somewhere else in outer space and they named this phenomenon ‘panspermia’.

Then came the theory of spontaneous generation of life during the times of Aristotle who believed that life was born from decaying and rotting inorganic matter such as hay, straw, and other non- living material. This theory was rubbished by Louis Pasteur.

Next came the ‘chemical evolution of life’ theory by two scientists- Oparin from Russia and Haldane from England. They believed that the generation of life on earth was a slow chemical process which occurred from pre-existing non-living materials such as amino acids, proteins and nuclear material such as RNA. They postulated that these organic materials came together under conditions of high temperature, reducing atmosphere(without oxygen) and gases released from volcanos all of which were favourable to produce simple living forms. So they called this mixture of organic materials as ‘organic soup’.