Larry asks:

> Interesting article.  It does require asking, where did the clay come from?

In the beginning was the Bang, and the Bang was good, but it was without
form. As time progressed, small ripples in the fabric of the Bang precipitated
mass and energy out of the stuff of the Bang, but the stuff of the Bang was
without energy. In the beginning was the Void, and the Void was dark, but from the
precipitation of the Bang, hydrogen -- and a very little helium and a
miniscule amount of lithium -- was formed. This was the periodic table for the first
several hundred million years.

Nature said, "Let there be light," and there was light. The almost
imperceptible ripples of the Bang grew and agglomerated to the point of accreting large
spinning things, composed of almost nothing but hydrogen, and from these large
spinning things the first galaxies of stars formed. The force of gravity
collapsed pockets of this hydrogen gas, and as those pockets collapsed, they
self-ignited into the fire of thermonuclear fusion. As these first stars were born,
grew and died, they consumed their primordial hydrogen, elevating it into the
upper elements of the periodic table through proton-proton fusion, but the
energies of these first stars were weak too. Iron was the most complex element
that was formed in these early stars.

This was the time of giant stars, and when their fuel was exhausted and they
could exist no longer, many of the stars died the cataclysmic deaths of
supernovae, and from this cataclysm, the remaining higher elements of the naturally
occurring elements were born.

The first generation stars begat the second generation stars, and in turn,
the second generation stars begat the third, and with each generation,
"metallicity" increased, and Nature said that "metallicity" was good. The new
generation of stars were born with protoplanetary accretion discs. From these accretion
discs, planets, with all of their elemental complexities and high-volume
volatiles, were formed from the void. Covalently bound molecules formed in this
abundance, centered on the bottom rungs of the periodic table in the fourth
group, and from these covalent molecules, hydrocarbons and carbohydrates
bountifully flowed. The precusor molecules of life were now everywhere, and that
abundance too was good, and Nature said, "Let there be life," and there was life.

Wirt Atmar

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