• Question: If scientists think humans were created by a chemical reaction then what created the chemicals that react?

    Asked by sosolicious to Aggelos, Andrew, Eileen, Naomi, Shane on 13 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Andrew Jackson

      Andrew Jackson answered on 13 Nov 2012:

      One of the theories for this is that the chemicals were in a kind of soup and that they all of a sudden one day started to interact in ways that meant they copied themselves and made more and more copies of themselves. Then one of these chemical molecules wrapped itself in a bag to protect itself against falling apart, and so the cell was created and then life really got rolling.

      Another theory is that the chemicals were held in particular structures by other chemicals in the soil. These provided a sort of structure or scaffolding around which they could combine in repetitive and predictable ways, and again one of them wrapped itself in a bag one day and life raced onwards from there!

      Life is all about copying oneself again and again.

    • Photo: Eileen Diskin

      Eileen Diskin answered on 16 Nov 2012:

      When the universe was first created, in the big bang, that produced all of the chemicals neccessary for life on Earth – including humans. Although this took a while, because at first the universe was just VERY hot, and VERY dense – too dense for light to even exist!

      Once it started cooling though, particles – and chemicals – were able to form, as they combined with one another. This took a very long time though!

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