INTRODUCTION

Have you ever imagined what the first creatures that lived on Earth were? Better yet how did they get here?

All cultures on Earth have myths related to the origin of life and almost all invoke outside intervention - not an unreasonable idea, since whenever a new thing appears we expect there to be some force or causative agent to make it happen. Of course, this leads to something of a dilemma because applying the rule of causation to life on Earth immediately assumes that something alive had to exist before life could appear on the planet.

There are other ideas that people have about how life cam to exist, In 1871 Darwin published, The Descent of Man. In this book, he argued that humans were the product of evolution and were most closely related to the African apes. The gorilla and the chimpanzee. Although little fossil evidence existed in 1871 to support Darwin's case, numerous fossil discoveries made since Darwin's death.   

But is life a highly improbable event?, or is it rather the inevitable consequence of a rich chemical soup available everywhere in the cosmos? Scientists have recently found new evidence that amino acids, the 'building-blocks' of life, can form not only in comets and asteroids, but also in the interstellar space. Some scientists suggested the building blocks of life might have hitched a ride on the comets and asteroids that would have routinely bombarded the Earth during its formation 4.6 billion years ago, when our planet was a lifeless and inhospitable place.

THE ASSIGNMENT: You and your partners have been chosen to represent your company R.E. & X. Diggs, a local archeological company. This company is hosting a conference on the origin of humans. Your company wants you to research the main theories of the origin of humans. Your research will center around the origin of life on Earth, then branch off and hypothesize about origin of humans.