They give a magnificent description of what the early Earth looked like, with constant asteroid bombardment, killer tides, a lethal atmosphere, and a strange carpet of slime. They also discuss where in our solar system, and beyond, similar processes may have resulted in the origin of extraterrestrial life. It's something very primitive. It's that sort of reasoning that we follow throughout the book. Even at present there is an incredible diversity of life that can survive in all kinds of environments.
Life is resourceful.
That's something that wouldn't be possible in the deep recesses of the Earth. According to Wills, life did not originate from a single self-replicating molecule, as some chemists believe. It was much more complex, requiring the cooperation of complexes of enzymes and other molecules. The only way you're going to get that is if the world was a very complicated place, right from the beginning. Wills added that the only way for chemists to understand the origin of life is to re examine the famous Miller-Urey experiment and start putting more complexity into the system.