> Abiogenesis, or informally the origin of life, is the natural process by which life arises from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds.

-- Wikipedia

First of all: Stephen Hawking died today, on Pi Day. Like so many, I was inspired by his book "A Brief History of Time", without understanding much of it, at a young age, to always try and understand the nature of reality. He was a giant among giants and a legend in his own time.

This piece isn't about physics though, but biology. All of you probably know about evolution... The process by which complex life evolves from simpler forms of life. But what you may not know is that evolution depends on self-replicating molecules, and that to this day, nobody yet understands how the first self-replicating molecules came to be.*

Many answer this with "God did it". I consider this a cop-out. In past centuries, perhaps, it was excusable to answer mysteries with "God" but today, I think of such an answer as, at the very least, intellectually dishonest.

Sometimes people ask me, if I'm atheist, what gives my life purpose. I think I couldn't answer better than Richard Dawkins in the quote below.

Abiogenesis

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Gallery: Fine Art
Max. Print Size: 40" x 30"
Art by Jody V. Lawrence_aka_Mandelsage

Will it be possible to solve these problems? It is certain that nobody has thus far observed the transformation of dead into living matter, and for this reason we cannot form a definite plan for the solution of this problem of transformation. But we see that plants and animals during their growth continually transform dead into living matter, and that the chemical processes in living matter do not differ in principle from those in dead matter. There is, therefore, no reason to predict that abiogenesis is impossible, and I believe that it can only help science if the younger investigators realize that experimental abiogenesis is the goal of biology.

-- Jaques Loeb

After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, bountiful with life. Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn’t it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it? This is how I answer when I am asked—as I am surprisingly often—why I bother to get up in the mornings.

-- Richard Dawkins

The Creation Process:

Unfortunately, I went looking and discovered that I hadn't saved any progression m3i files like I usually do. So what I did was, I loaded up the formulae of Abiogenesis and then went into the preview window and tweaked only one parameter (the "Fold" parameters, seen below, right next to where the cursor is), to give you a peek into the inside of the fractal:

Notice below how I only shifted the parameter a tiny amount, yet the change to the image is substantial:

And here, I shifted it all the way to the left. From this you can get an idea of how infinite the possibilities are for exploring fractal worlds and finding artistic expression in them =) ...:

So tell me... What gives your life meaning? If you're a believer, don't be shy ;) ... But surely it isn't only your belief? I'd love to hear about it.

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"Abiogenesis" | Gallery: Fine Art

Abiogenesis

The Creation Process: