Life

This is a purely non philosophical post. Please read on if u even have minimalistic scientific inclinations...

"....If u imagine the 4500 million years of Earth's history compressed into a normal day, then life begins very early, at about 4 a.m, with the rise of the first simple, single-celled organisms, but then advances no further for the next sixteen hours (!).

Not until about eight thirty in the evening, with the day about five sixths over, has the Earth anything to show the Universe but a restless skin of microbes. Then finally the first seaplants appear, followed by the first jellyfish, and the enigmatic Ediacaran fauna. At 9.04 pm trilobites swim onto the scene. Just before 10 pm, plants pop onto the scene. Soon after, with less than 2 hours left in the day, the first land creatures arrive.

Thanks to 10 minutes or so of balmy weather, by 10.24 the Earth is covered in great carboniferous forests whose residues give us all the coal, and the first winged insects are evident. Dinosaurs plod onto the scene just before 11 pm. and hold sway for about 3/4th of an hour. At 21 minutes to midnight they vanish and the age of mammals begins.

Humans emerge one minute and seventeen seconds before midnight.

The whole of our recorded history, on this scale would be no more than a few seconds, a single lifetime barely an instant.

Throughout this greatly speeded up day, continents regularly slide and bang into each other at a clip that seems reckless. Mountains rise and melt away, oceans come and go, ice sheets advance and withdraw. And throughout the whole, once about 3 times minute, there is a flash bulb pop of a light marking the incidence of a Mansonized meteor or larger. Its a wonder that anything at all can survive in such a pummeled and unsettled environment. In fact, not many things do for long......"

Bill Bryson, you rock!