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 …
