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Our solar system was a swirling mass of gas and dust where particles of mass are continusouly expanding.
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Earth grew larger as gravity pulled in more debris and particles from the Big Bang.
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Earth is estimated to be 4 billion years old, that’s 700,000 years older than history.
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Finding the age of Earth was made possible by studying the sedimentary rocks in the Earth’s crust. Radiometric dating is a technique used for establishing the age of materials dating back as far as 4 billion years ago.
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Oldest fossils of stromatalite were discovered are to be 3.5 BYA.
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Some forms of life had become photosynthetic. Meaning they could make their own food.
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Oxygen was created but at first it was damaging to the first unicellular organisms.
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O2 levels reached today’s levels. Prokaryote cells may have developed into eukaryotic cells.
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A small aerobic prokarote was engulfed by and began to live and reproduce inside of a larger anaerobic prokaryote.
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Ozone (O3) formed – protected organisms from harmful UV rays so they could exist on land.
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Redi observed that maggots appeared where adult flies landed and maggots came out of sacks. Robert Hooke invented the first microscope. Scientists began using the microscope to observe tiny creatures. Francesco Redi conducted an experiment to test his hypothesis, that meat isolated from adult flies would be free of maggots.
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Spallanzani designed an experiment to test the hypothesis on spontaneous generation or microorganisms.
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Pasteur won a prize from Paris academy of science for clearing up controversies over spontaneous generation.
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Sidney Fox did research on the physical structures of the first cells. For example he studied microsphere structures, and coacervates structures. The Miller-Urey experiment produced a variety of organic compounds, including amino acids.
