European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - December 6, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                 is life Bylee Sheqel associated press volcanoes spewed steam and other gases. Sunlight and lightning changed the gases into other molecules which rained into oceans. And in shallow pools near Barren seashores increasingly Complex chemical reaction produced Earth s first living organisms. Thai at least is the version of the beginning of life favored by Pale biologist j. William school of the University of California at los Angeles. They were even simpler than the Simples bacteria says Schopf of those first organisms. He believes they probably looked like round microscopic bags made of membrane and contained chemicals that let them make copies of themselves and obtain Lood Energy from heir Bleak surroundings. Scientists who pain this picture of the origin of life say they still Don t know exactly How such complicated mixtures of chemicals gradually assumed the properties of life. They think the transformation happened sometime Between 4.6 billion and 3.5 billion years ago. Bul in the 34 years since Stanley Miller subjected gases  electrical spaits  produce amino acids the chemical building blocks of life researchers claim they have gotten much closer  figuring out How life began. We re trying  reconstruct a historical process said Miller now a chemist at the University of California at san Diego  we re never going  find the piece of Rock where life  scientist eventually will demonstrate a plausible explanation of How life started by actually synthesizing a very primitive life form in the Laboratory predicted Miller whose famous 1952 Experiment As a University of Chicago graduate student earned him a place in biology textbooks. I m optimistic that in the near future we will understand what happened 4 billion years ago on the primitive Earth said chemist Andre Brack of France s Center for molecular biophysics. Researchers now have a pretty Good idea How simple chemicals evolved into Complex organic Erma Bombeck chemicals which contain cartoon but Are not living substances said Boson University biologist Lynn Margulis  author of Mac Rosmos a Book about evolution. She said scientists also know about the evolution from bacterial Lite id people bul there s a Gap Between chemicals and very simple bacteria. That Gap is being narrowed she said. Recent advances in understanding How chemicals supposedly became life were outlined last july when 285 researchers from 22 countries met in Berkeley for the eighth International conference in the origin of Lite. Tom Mot exciting finding concerned theories about the Way Complex chemicals first were Able  make copies of themselves setting the stage Lor the reproduction of living cells How organic chemicals might have evolved into the membranes essential for cells  exist and How the earliest organisms could have collected stored and used the Energy they needed  survive. The scientists also debated what conditions on Early Earth made Tife possible. The theory that life arose irom chemical evolution increasingly Complex chemical reactions that produced sugars nucleic acids proteins and other vital molecules was developed in the 1b20s by russian biochemist Alexander Oparin and British biologist  Haldane. The a Lull predominant theory holds thai ultraviolet sunlight lightning and other Energy acted on gases in Earth s Early atmosphere  produce More elaborate chemicals which rained into oceans and created a diluted primordial soup of organic chemical that eventually spawned Lite. Melvin Calvin at the University of California at Berkeley firs tested the theory in 1950. Bul it was Miller working for Nobel laureate chemist Harold Urey who made the breakthrough. He bombarded a mixture of Hydrogen methane ammonia and water vapor with electricity and produced four amino acids the organic acid commonly found in the proteins of All living things. The gases used in Miller s Experiment were those from which the solar system is believed by some  have condensed. But in recent years atmospheric chemists argued that Hydrogen methane and ammonia would have been destroyed Famy quickly in Earth s Early of photo  helping  Tom Dighton Chen one theoret of it origin of Ufa. Atmosphere. They soy volcanic eruptions yielded an atmosphere made up mostly of nitrogen Carbon dioxide and water vapor. The problem a that life s organic building blocks would t easily form in such an atmosphere although Miller and others still believe they did. Those who disagree offer minority theories about the source of the organic chemicals needed for life. Chemist a. Graham Cairns Smith of Scotland s Glasgow University believes life arose from Clay minerals that could reproduce the Selvea store and Transfer Energy and serve As lifelike factories thai assembled organic chemicals. Other scientists argue that Ufa started near chemical Rich undersea hot Springs. Some contend thai the chemicals needed for life came from meteorites that struck Earth. Most scientists believe molecules from meteorites simply augmented organic chemicals that formed on Earth. A handful accept the biblical account of creation saying other theories Are hawed and arguing that  Chance mixture of chemicals could create life. Men play such such games with their cars. Take our tour wheel drive please. It s about 10 years old 2090 human years has  will  live and gets about two traffic lights  the gallon. My husband treats ii like an invalid Mother. He puts ii in the garage every night Rolls up the windows and locks it like the motor would turn Over if someone wanted  steal ii and has a patient ear for every malady. His ultimate goal for the car is for the mileage gauge  Register 100,000 Miles. The Road has been paved with frustration and major repairs.  begin with a car knows what you re up . It May sit there and act stupid but it knows the moment the big number Rolls around it s off  rust Chy,.o it  lha event men Are just As bad As the car. They know whal the ear  doing bul they Rise  the Challenge  make 100,000 Miles before they  broke Page 16 the stars and stripes this is How the game is played. The car will run without major incident until it hits 80,000 Miles. Then some Little thing will  like a window won t  All the Way up on the passenger Side. The owner plays it Cool. He ignores it. After All who in going  notice that when a unloads it having scored  Points the car now comes up one cold morning with a dead gallery ignore that the owner can t Tow it in  be traded  he must Spring for the gallery. The car has him where ii wants him.  it goes for a healer breakdown or in the summer an air conditioner breakdown. The owner May fake the car out on this one. Depe Rufing on his tolerance for frostbite and How cold the Winter gets. It goes on like this for the Nell 5,000 Miles. A repair Here. A repair there. How far can it push the owner How far will he owner  before he drives it into a car lot and trades it in saturday december 8,1988 with less than a thousand Miles   it s real Herd Ball. One Day the car fells into first gear and refuses  get out. The owner must decide whether it is bluffing and just needs a Seal. Whether the transmission la really going out. Or ban he afford  take a Day and a half  gel  the office in first gear. I was with my husband the Day 100.000 mses rolled Over on the mileage gauge. We looked around.  one cared. It was t like the tying run of the world series or the anniversary of the statue of Liberty. Them was  White smoke like when a new Pope la elected or the Bells from churches that heralded be Day. That s it asked. He nodded. Great i said now you can transit in he said maybe i la keep it unit i get my Money out 01 me  the car won again. It always