Gonzalez, Laney

Mr. Wisner
World History
M/W 2
5 October 2016

The Idea that Life Began as Clay Crystals is 50 Years

Old
*Your Task
http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160823-the-idea-that-life-began-as-clay-crystals-is-50-years-o
ld
(Historical Event)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/how-did-life-begin.html

Key Vocabulary from the Article (Define at least 4).

Organic chemistry - the chemistry of carbon compounds
Nucleotides - a compound consisting of a nucleoside linked to a phosphate
group. Nucleotides from basic structural unit of nucleic acids such as DNA.
Genetic Mutation - a permanent alteration in a DNA sequence that makes up a
gene.
Molecules - group of atoms bonded together

Summary of the Event (at least 3 major points; each point will have its own
paragraph)
Graham Cairns-Smith was a chemist who spent his entire life pushing for the
idea that life began with simple clay crystals. Through the ridicule from other scientists
about his idea, he still continued pushing through. He began his life as a painter, but
soon stopped after that job became too demanding and pursued his career in science.
Through his studies with organic chemistry, he knew the essentials of life consisted of
molecules, such as DNA and proteins, he questioned how such complex compounds
started. A study done by a biochemist named Stanley Miller was published in 1953.
Cairns-Smith had questioned about this study, he thought about how there may have
been a step before the genetic material took over. Cairns-Smith then asked himself two
questions, What are the essential properties needed for a living system, and can those
properties be found anywhere other than the forms of life that we know today? That is
when the chemist stumbled upon clay.
When you look at clay under a microscope, you can see that it is made up of tiny
crystals. If placed with water consisting with the same chemical components as clay, the
mother crystal with break into daughter crystals. The daughter crystals inherit traits
from the mother crystals, but sometimes things can be different, which is similar to
genetic mutation. After further observation, Cairns-Smith noticed that the clay crystals
could reproduce by themselves. He then released a paper that he published in 1966,
and since then only a handful of people have taken the experiment in their hands. Dieter
Braun of Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich in Germany said that observing the
crystals would be too difficult because the technology for it still does not exist. Braun
also stated that geneticists said the research would be too expensive and to difficult to
do. A few more people took Cairns-Smiths experiment, but was manipulated too much
to be what he actually found.
Cairns-Smith never got the funding to try his ideas. He gave many lectures,
ranging from Menlo Park Geology Survey to Nasa. Menlo Park told him that his geology
was fine, but his chemistry was off and vise versa for Nasa. Cairns-Smith then found a
group of science journalists and popular press that were more eager. Cairns-Smiths
publisher encouraged him to write a book, and he enjoyed doing so for wider audiences.
Sadly, Graham's ideas did not enter the scientific mainstream. Even though his ideas
never actually broke out, he is one of the people who influences others to research
different ways of how life started.

Your Opinion of the Event (at least 3 sentences).

I think it is really interesting that life may have started through something as
simple as clay. I wish they would have continued researching, but I am also quite
content with people coming upon Cairns-Smiths discovery. I am also interested on how
he came upon clay and if he thought about clay being structured how it is or just
stumbled upon it. I am also fascinated as people might continue to stem out from simple
things such as clay to see how the world actually started.

Relate your Event to a Historical Event (compare and contrast with current event).
The historical event I chose is an interview with Andy Knoll, a paleontologist who
studied at Harvard. He states that he believes that bacteria is most important due to it
possibly being one of the first things to have existed. One similarity both of the articles
have is that they both contain reproduction. In The Idea that Life began as Clay
Crystals is 50 Years Old also says that reproduction is necessary so that new
generations can be created. One difference is that while in How Did Life Begin?, Knoll
explains that life must have started with small strands of nucleic acids while in The Idea
that Life Began as Clay Crystals is 50 Years Old, Cairns-Smith claims that the clay was
started with more complicated things dealing with inheritance and genetic mutation in
the chromosomes.

Relate your Event to the a Theme (at least 3 sentences). SEE BACK FOR THEMES
Science and technology is a way of acquiring information by observation and
experimentation while using technology to further this research. Sadly, majority of
people would not bother to observe the clay crystals due to the fact that it would take a
period of days. Dieter Braun states that ...It took us 40 years to get sequencing for a
molecule DNA really working fast. Plus, research was never continued because it
would be quite expensive and difficult, and there really no benefit from it.

Questions You Have About the Event

1) Since Graham Cairns-Smith has passed away, will people continue looking into
clay?
 2) What other natural, simple things may contain the same properties as clay?
3) Why have people only studied chemistry when researching the origin of life?
4) While studying the origin of life, will researchers now expand into geology due to
the discoveries Cairns-Smith found?

THEMES:
1.Cultural Interaction o Agricultural and pastoral production
o Gender roles and relations
2.Political Structures o Trade and commerce
o Religions o Family and kinship
o State-building, expansion, and conflict o Labor systems
o Belief systems, philosophies, and ideologies o Racial and ethnic constructions
o Empires o Industrialization
o Science and technology o Social and economic classes
o Nations and nationalism o Economic theories
o The arts and architecture
o Revolts and revolutions 5.Human-Environment Interaction
o Disease
3.Economic Structures o Migration & patterns of settlement
o Population growth
4.Social Structures o Technology