In
human thermodynamics, a
molecular evolution table shows the linear build up of atomic structure in
animate molecular structures in time, via
evolution or
synthesis, over the course of the last 13.7 billion years of
universal activity from sub-atomic particles, to
atoms, to hydrogen
molecules, to
DNA, to
bacteria molecules, to
human molecules, etc.. The first evolution table was by American chemical engineer
Libb Thims in 2005 and is shown below: [1]
OverviewIn an 1871 letter written by English naturalist
Charles Darwin to English botanist Joseph Hooker, Darwin made the suggestion that:
"[The original spark of life may have begun in] a warm little pond, with all sorts of ammonia and phosphoric salts, lights, heat, electricity, etc. present, so that a protein compound was chemically formed ready to undergo still more complex changes."
In this sense, all life is postulated to be a descendent from a protein compound, formed in a heated pond many years ago. In modern terms, as fossil records indicate that bacteria existed on the surface of the earth 3.85 billion years ago, an unsolved debate of sorts or puzzle exists as to what life-forms came before bacteria? A single bacterium, however, is in itself a very large animated molecule, such as the colony or cluster of 20-30 Escherichia coli bacterial units (bacteria molecules) attached to a substrate, as pictured adjacent, comprised of about 10 billion carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms, among twelve other atom types, e.g. nitrogen, phosphorous, sodium, etc., in various quantities. To form such a large molecule, form a chemical point of view, an assemble-type “chemical reaction” would be needed. This assumes that there were “reactants” that went into the formation of the first bacteria unit (product), and that there were prior energetically-coupled connective reaction mechanisms prior to the bacterial reactions.