My paper and speech are about crystals and amino acids and their part in the evolution and creation debates. .
Rocks and minerals have been around for a very long time if not forever. Their role is not like that of an archaeopteryx or a hominid but a more structural one, allowing evolution to take place and sometimes helping out, as you will see.
Foundation of the Origins of life .
Some theories state that there was water everywhere, that may be true but for any evolution to take place there had to be some solid substance or object for the different organic species to concentrate on and still have protection from solar radiation. This is where crystals come in, particularly Zeolites .
Most of the Zeolites are hydrophilic and silica rich but there are a few of these that are organophilic (loving organic material). One of these is mutinaite, a naturally occurring organophilic zeolite recently discovered in Antarctica. This could be the missing link in the evolution theory that life formed out of nothing. The thing that makes this mineral so different from other organophilic minerals is that instead of a silica base it has aluminum. This is the part that has the ability to form amino acids (the building blocks of protein) and eventually life. By losing aluminum at the surface, it becomes rich in silica through weathering. This would then allow the remaining aluminum to form the base of organic molecules and allow them to change into polymers and at the same time protect them from the solar radiation.
How life forms.
In 1954, Stanley Miller and Harold Urey conducted an experiment. This was to see if amino acids could be formed from elements and chemicals in the universe. It was found that with water and lightning these acids could form. They formed amino acids by taking molecules that were common in the earths atmosphere and put them in a closed system. They used methane, ammonia, hydrogen gas, and water.