• Question: How do you think the world really evolved?

    Asked by laurennn to Alastair, Emma, Hywel, Keith, Vicki on 25 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Alastair Sloan

      Alastair Sloan answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Great question Laurenn. I am a believer in Darwin, although his theory still does not have all the answers.

    • Photo: Keith Brain

      Keith Brain answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      I’m a believer in the idea that the earth formed from bits and pieces of debris in the solar system about 5 billion years ago, with life starting on earth about about half a billion years later, which has been evolving since then. Regarding the evolution of species, I think that Darwin got it mostly right.

    • Photo: Vicki Stevenson

      Vicki Stevenson answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      according to astrophysicists the earth was made about 4.6 billion years ago, and is a lot younger than the universe (about 14 billion years old).
      It is possible that a nearby supernova caused a shock wave which caused interstellar dust and gas to rotate and develop gravity. Most of the mass concentrated in the middle began to heat up (becoming the sun), dust particles formed rings around the sun – larger pieces began to collide and form together into planets including the earth. It took about 15 million years for the earth to form.

      At some point simple cells started floating around in the sea, then these developed into more complex cell based life, which gradually developed into the first animals – sponges seem to be the first animals and they seem to be able to propagate by fragments of them falling off and developing into new sponges. Things gradually got more complex from there until we reached animals that actually give birth.

    • Photo: Emma Carter

      Emma Carter answered on 25 Jun 2010:

      There are a lots of holes in the theory of evolution – too many for me to ignore – so I actually don’t think the world with all its incredible complexity just evolved from a gaseous mix.

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