In at least one solar system, this astonishing universe has manifested
an event of no little significance, by providing a fresh opportunity for carbon-based life-forms to emerge out of itself … and
thus matter becomes animate matter …
Earth as seen from Apollo 17 spacecraft.
This shimmeringly blue planet exudes a humid and nutrient-rich
atmosphere that is the primordial womb of the only life that is so far known to exist …
All Space photographs courtesy
of NASA/STScI
The circumstances on earth were ripe for amoeba to grow ...
Photograph
courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
... and begin the now-inevitable progression of conscious animate life – as distinct from
vegetative life.
Photograph courtesy of Nook Dallas from screenworks.com.au
The multiplicity of organisms that has developed and redeveloped has
done so through the biological feed-back mechanism of the primal creature’s involuntary response to environmental dictates.
Their ‘life-successful’ reactions are genetically encoded as automated survival instincts …
So abundant and luxuriant is carbon-based life on the planet that it is estimated that there are
currently between 2 and 4.5 million individual animal and plant species on the planet …
