LIFE’S CRADLE: About 4 billion years ago, in the so-called period of heavy bombardment, Earth was continually subjected to gigantic impacts by chunks of debris left over from the formation of the Solar System. © MARK GARLICK/SCIENCE SOURCE
—French naturalist Ètienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, on how life arose from non-life, c. 1836
—Nobel laureate Jack Szostak, of Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, on the distinction between origin-of-life studies and the categorization of organisms (February 2012)
—A Huffington Post/YouGov poll question to which 72% of respondents answered that they were either “very worried” or “somewhat worried” about the possibility (February 2, 2014)
—Creationist Ken Ham, in his opening remarks at the start of a debate with science communicator Bill Nye on whether or not creationism is a viable model for life’s origins (February 4, 2014)
—Bill Nye, science communicator, in his opening remarks at the start of a debate with creationist Ken Ham (February 4, 2014)
