Originally published in 2008

Life on Earth was started when some systems intertwined.
Cyanamide and glycolaldehyde first combined.
They made nucleic acids until somewhere in the slime,
Some RNA encoded a protein enzyme.

Gases that were present in our early atmosphere,
Made the building blocks of proteins begin to appear.
When lightning sparked these gases, and they rearranged their bonds,
Amino acids rained into oceans and ponds.

Pond scum evolved as the earliest life.
It was way before Adam’s rib made Eve, his wife.
Pond scum evolved simple monophylytes,
Cyanobacterial stromatolites.

Somewhere in a mud pot, cooking up organic stew,
Some foamy lipid bubbles blended into the brew.
The lipids and the proteins eventually produced
Coordinated pathways so cells reproduced.

Pond scum evolved and became more diverse.
Lots of modifications meant life would disperse.
Pond scum mutated and shifted its gears
And, Presto! A Homo….in four billion years. (2)

Life is complicated but it’s easy to be fooled,
For life’s still mostly microbes, noted Stephen J. Gould.
And pond scum is still with us, as the public surely knows.
And it’s still multiplying, as politics shows.

(1) Powner, Gerland, and Sutherland, Nature, v 459, 14 May 2009, pp239-242
(2) A closer estimate is 3.8 billion years but that doesn’t scan