Life on early Earth

Aha, as I was saying! Why would we think that one celled creatures are not very important to our own health? They were here first; we are evolved from them. We *need* them. We need to feed and care for those inside and on our bodies. Here is a previous post and excellent source.

Taken from the November 6th print edition of the Week Magazine:

In the first 700 million years after the Earth’s formation, scientists have long believed, our planet was a hellish realm devoid of life—with asteroids raining down on a landscape riddled with volcanoes, molten rock, and poisonous gases. But new research suggests that life may have taken root in the Earth’s turbulent youth—300 million years earlier than previously suspected, reports HuffingtonPost​.com. Our planet formed roughly 4.5 billion years ago, and was heavily volcanic for eons as it slowly cooled. The earliest fossil records date to about 3.8 billion years ago, when single-celled creatures began to appear. But by studying tiny crystals that form in magma, called zircons, geochemists at the University of California at Los Angeles found microscopic flecks of pure carbon with a signature indicating it had been left behind by living organisms 4.1 billion years ago. “Life on Earth may have started almost instantaneously,” says study co-author Mark Harrison. “With the right ingredients, life seems to form very quickly.” He said the study suggests that simple life-forms may be quite common throughout the universe.