C-2
Name: _______________________
SCIENCE – The Cell
January 22, 2007
Section #/color: ___ /_____________
THE ORIGIN OF LIFE
How did the universe come to be?
How did life first come to be on our planet?
A BANG of a question with many answers springing from a point of SINGULARITY, indeed!
INTRODUCTION:
We are going to journey through a timeline of how the universe and life on our planet came to be.
During this journey, we must keep in mind that this topic is very complex, very deep, and very
debatable due to the conflict that exists between the different scientific, religious, and cultural explanations
tied to it. In fact, we will find out that there are not only separate scientific, religious, and cultural views, but
ALSO views that combine scientific, religious, and cultural thoughts into one.
So, that being said…keep an open mind…activate your tools of inference and skepticism…and let the
journey begin!
YOUR TASKS:
Below is a list of the steps you need to take in order to make this a successful journey through time (all of
time, in fact!).
1.
Participate in a short discussion on what you already think and know about THE ORIGIN OF THE
UNIVERSE AND LIFE.
2. Get a(some) partner(s), if you so wish to.
3. Read through the attached timeline and the articles on “Intelligent Design” as well as “The Big Bang.”
4. On the attached pages, take notes on what you observe in this information. You may…
 Write down observations.
 Ask questions.
 Give opinions.
 Propose other ideas and insights.
5. If you are working with a(some) partner(s), you may want to discuss your notes and add to them
based on your discussion.
6. Work on this tonight. Add to your notes by…
 Talking to your family about the timeline and attached articles.
 Looking for answers to your questions on-line.
BE SURE TO LIST THE SOURCE OF YOUR NOTES!
7. Be ready to hold an accountable talk on this topic. Bring your thoughts, opinions, evidence, insight to
the table (i.e. YOUR NOTES!). Everyone must participate in the discussion at LEAST once!
8. Wrap up your time-traveling journey by performing Journal Entry #12. This entry is going to be due
on Monday, 1/29.
1
The Origin of Life
SCIENTIFIC TIMELINE
(Designed by Mrs. P & based on your Prentice Hall “Cells” textbook as well as on-line research)
EVENT
TIME OF
EVENT
IMPORTANT FACTS
Big Bang
15 Billion
Years Ago
An explosion of matter at a point called a “Singularity.” The
Universe is “born.”
The Planet
Earth
is Formed
4.6
B.Y.A
Gravity pulls HOT gas and dust together to form a planet.
The Earth
Cools
4 Billion
Years Ago
Oceans and
Molecules
Form
Earth cools
more.
3.8
B.Y.A.
Cells are
Formed
Darwin goes
on a cruise
Cooler environment, but still not habitable. Rocky surface and
poisonous atmosphere.
Thunderstorms drench planet to create oceans.
Oceans provide a place for the “molecules of life” to form
(e.g. proteins, carbs, etc.).
a) Shallow pools of water or beds of clay become “nurseries” of
first lifeforms.
3.5 B.Y.A.
b) First “soup eaters” [autotrophic chemosynthesizers], then “light
eaters”[autotrophic photosynthesizers], then multicellular
organisms and heterotrophs.
a) On the H.M.S. Beagle boat, the English biologist/naturalist
Charles Darwin explores S. America and Australia.
1830’s
b) From his trip, he hypothesizes natural selection – the idea that
species of organisms w/ the strongest traits survive (survival of the
fittest) and organisms EVOLVE from one another.
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EVENT
The Theory of
the “Big
Bang” is First
Hypothesized
TIME OF
EVENT
1920’s
IMPORTANT FACTS
Hubble, Lemaitre and Freidman discover evidence in Cosmic
background Radiation (left over “Bang”) and Red Shift of the
planets (galaxies are STILL moving).
The “Big
bang” gets a
name
1950
Scientist Fred Hoyle has some derisive “poking fun” – he believed
in a different theory
Dr. Stanley
Miller “Plays
God”
1953
American scientist Stanley Miller mixes together some special
compounds to make the building blocks of the “soup”(i.e. life!).
The Concept of
Intelligent
Design is
Proposed
The Future of
the Universe is
Predicted
2000 Y.A.,
1800’s, and
TODAY
2006
(Today!)
Theory of Intelligent Design hypothesized, revisted,
and re-revisted.
Greeks, Paley, Behe…
The idea that a “designer” has controlled the creation of complex
organisms…NOT evolution.
a) Two theories: Crunch vs. Expansion
b) CRUNCH – the universe will rebound back into a singularity.
EXPANSION – the universe will keep growing and growing and
growing!
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Our Universe Sure Started with a…
INTRODUCTION…
We certainly know that our universe and life exists, however, this knowledge alone has not satisfied
humankind’s quest for further understanding of just how life and our universe BEGAN. Throughout time, every
culture, religion, and scientist has asked these questions: How did our universe begin? How old is our
universe? How did matter come to exist? How did LIFE come to exist? Much time and effort has been spent
looking for the answers to these questions. Yet, much of what we know is still only speculation.
However, through the understandings of modern science, we have been able to provide firm theories for some
of the answers we once called hypotheses. True to the nature of science, a majority of these answers have
only led to more intriguing and complex questions. It seems to be inherent in our search for knowledge that
questions will always continue to exist.
THE BIG BANG…
One of the most persistently asked questions of humankind has been: How was the universe created? Many
once believed that the universe had no beginning or end and was truly infinite. But a recent theory…The BIG
BANG…seems to say that there is a beginning and an end to our universe!
About 15 billion years ago a tremendous explosion started the expansion of the universe. This explosion is
known as The Big Bang. This theory was first hypothesized in the 1920’s by the scientists Hubble, Lemaitre,
and Freidman but it did not get its name until 1950. It was then that the English astrophysicist Fred Hoyle, who
championed a rival cosmological theory, called it “The Big Bang” out of derision. The name “Big Bang,”
however, was so catchy that it stuck!
Even though The Big Bang suggests a colossal explosion, it wasn’t really an “explosion” in the sense that we
understand it. Space itself exploded. At the moment of The Big Bang all of the matter and energy of space
was contained at one point – a point that was not bigger that the head of a pin! This point was called a
SINGULARITY. The Big Bang lay the foundations of the universe; space expanded from this one point and the
universe was a VERY hot place at this time.
As space expanded, it continued to cool down. Matter—at first photons, quarks, gluons, neutrinos, and
electrons, and then protons and neutrons—condensed out, all less than one second after The Big Bang. It
was not until one billion years later, when the universe was one-fifth the size it is today, that the matter would
form the first stars and galaxies. In fact, our earth didn’t start to form until almost 10 billion years after The Big
Bang!
Have a hard time “picturing” what The Big Bang was like? Well, try this analogy on for size: Imagine that this
SCIENTIFIC explanation of the universe was like the baking of raisin bread. All the raisins are dispersed
throughout the bread…but, as you begin to bake it, the bread rises and expands outward. The same thing
happened with the universe. The planets and galaxies are like the raisins…constantly moving out from the
central point of the singularity!
Since The Big Bang, the universe has been continuously expanding and, thus, the distance between the
clusters of galaxies has been growing. There are many theories about what will happen to the universe in the
future…two major hypotheses exist today: one that the universe will end in a big “CRUNCH” and the other that
the universe will be part of a continual expansion that will go on and on and on and on and on…AND ON!
BANG…CRUNCH…EXPANSION (sounds kinda like that song from Chicago, huh?). No “matter” what theory
is “correct,” the origin and future of our universe is definitely a BIG topic upon which scientists (and students!)
are CRUNCHING their brains to EXPAND their understanding of!
NOTE: This essay was paraphrased into 7th grade lingo from the sites: http://archive.nesa.uius.edu, http://www.umich.edu, and http://www.funology.com
a la Mrs. P !
4
INTELLIGENT DESIGN…
How smart is this theory?
A special report reprinted from Natural History magazine – April 2002
Charles Darwin was a
biologist and naturalist
who, during the 1830’s,
embarked on a scientific
voyage to South
America and Australia.
This voyage helped led
to his concept of
NATURAL SELECTION.
Natural selection is the
idea that organisms
EVOLVE from one
another and the
organisms with the most
favorable traits are the
ones that are “selected”
to survive (i.e. survival
of the fittest). Darwin
wrote the famous books
“Origin of the Species”
and “The Descent of
Man” on these topics.
ID proponents accept
that some species do
change and that Earth is
much more than 6,000
years old but reject that
evolution accounts for
the array of species.
ID is getting a hearing
in some political and
educational circles.
Introduction
Prepared by Richard Milner & Vittorio Maestro, senior editors of
Natural History
The idea that an organism's complexity is evidence for the existence of
a cosmic designer was advanced centuries before Charles Darwin was
born. Its best-known exponent was English theologian William Paley,
creator of the famous watchmaker analogy. If we find a pocket watch
in a field, Paley wrote in 1802, we immediately infer that it was
produced not by natural processes acting blindly but by a designing
human intellect. Likewise, he reasoned, the natural world contains
abundant evidence of a supernatural creator. The argument from
design, as it is known, prevailed as an explanation of the natural world
until the publication of the Origin of Species in 1859. The weight of the
evidence that Darwin had patiently gathered swiftly convinced
scientists that evolution by natural selection better explained life's
complexity and diversity. "I cannot possibly believe," wrote Darwin in
1868, "that a false theory would explain so many classes of facts."
In some circles, however, opposition to the concept of evolution has
persisted to the present. The argument from design has recently been
revived by a number of academics with scientific credentials, who
maintain that their version of the idea (unlike Paley's) is soundly
supported by both microbiology and mathematics. These
antievolutionists differ from fundamentalist creationists in that they
accept that some species do change (but not much) and that Earth is
much more than 6,000 years old. Like their predecessors, however,
they reject the idea that evolution accounts for the array of species we
see today, and they seek to have their concept -- known as intelligent
design -- included in the science curriculum of schools.
Most biologists have concluded that the proponents of intelligent
design display either ignorance or deliberate misrepresentation of
evolutionary science. Yet their proposals are getting a hearing in some
political and educational circles and are currently the subject of a
debate within the Ohio Board of Education. Although Natural History
does not fully present and analyze the intelligent-design phenomenon
in the pages that follow, we offer, for the reader's information, brief
position statements by three leading proponents of the theory, along
with three responses. The section concludes with an overview of the
intelligent-design movement by a philosopher and cultural historian
who has monitored its history for more than a decade.
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OPPOSING INTELLIGENT VIEWS…
Scientist
Who’s smarter with his argument?
Michael J. Behe
(FOR ID)
Argument
…It is unlikely that the complex structures and
organs systems of some organisms could have
been created by “successive modifications” and
evolutions under the idea of Natural Selection.
To illustrate how this, let’s make a comparison
between the structure of complex of organisms
and the structure of the everyday mousetrap.
The mousetrap consists of (1) a flat wooden
platform or base; (2) a metal hammer, which
crushes the mouse; (3) a spring with extended
ends to power the hammer; (4) a catch that
releases the spring; and (5) a metal bar that
connects to the catch and holds the hammer
back. You can't catch a mouse with just a
platform, then add a spring and catch a few
more mice, then add a holding bar and catch a
few more. All the pieces have to be in place
before you catch any mice. The same is true for
a complex organism. A complex organism
consists of many parts that help it to function; if
it does not have one of these parts, it is unable
to function.
Kenneth R. Miller
(AGAINST ID)
…Ironically, Behe's own example, the mousetrap,
shows what's wrong with his idea that Natural
Selection is impossible.
Take away two parts of the mousetrap (e.g. the
catch and the metal bar), and you may not have
a mousetrap but you do have a three-part
machine that makes a fully functional tie clip or
paper clip. Take away the spring, and you have a
two-part key chain. The catch of some
mousetraps could be used as a fishhook, and the
wooden base as a paperweight; useful
applications of other parts include everything
from toothpicks to nutcrackers and clipboard
holders.
The point, which science has long understood, is
that bits and pieces of supposedly complex
organisms may have different -- but still useful -functions. And, given the right amount of time,
the “bits and pieces” may modify and evolve into
more complex forms and structures.
Natural selection can only choose among the
structures and organ systems of organisms that
are already working, so idea that such
organisms were able to evolve from other less
complex organisms poses a powerful challenge
to Darwinian theory…
NOTE: The above arguments were paraphrased into 7th grade lingo a la Miss P !
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THE WRAP-UP
Now that you’ve experienced some the major ideas behind the origin of the universe and life on your planet,
give yourself the time to reflect and extend your knowledge on this topic by performing the following journal
entry.
Journal Entry #12
The Origin of Life
January 24, 2007
Write/type the above heading at the top of the paper you are using for your journal entry.
1. Write a one paragraph reflection on our accountable talk. Include how you think the talk went, how it
could have been improved and one piece of information you learned from the talk.
2. Read the following quote as seen by Miss P on a bumper sticker:
‘God said, “BANG!” THEN, it happened.’
Write a response to the bumper sticker quote. Include in your response…
 an analysis of what the quote means to you. When you do this, refer to what we talked about
and discovered in the timeline journey.
 an incorporation of at least ONE idea from the timeline journey that is connected to your analysis.
3. Explain whether or not you believe that scientific and cultural/religious theories should be intertwined
and mixed to explain the world around us. Should scientific theories be separated from cultural/religious
theories or combined? Why or why not?
4. Extend your understanding of the theories behind the origin of the universe and life by doing at least
ONE of the following:
a) Research an alternate scientific, cultural, or religious theory about the origin of the universe or life
(e.g. creation). Write a short paragraph about the alternate theory that you select. In addition to a
summary of the theory, be sure to mention in your paragraph what group or kind of people (e.g. a
cultural or religious group) believe(d) in this theory.
OR….
b) Research one of the people, groups of people, or events that we spoke about in the timeline
journey. Write a paragraph about what you find. Be sure to include details about the person or
event that we did NOT mention in class already.
c) Propose your own theory. Explain what theory you believe and why OR make up your own theory
and support it with evidence.
You can find your answers via internet or library research or by interviewing someone!
Here are Internet links that might help with your research for the above assignment (#4):
http://www.religioustolerance.org/evolutio.htm
http://www.crystalinks.com/creation.html
http://www.azinet.com/originoflife.html
http://map.gsfc.nasa.gov/m_uni.html
http://www.ibiblio.org/astrobiology/index.php?page=index
http://www.historyoftheuniverse.com
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