Re: What did the first Organic Thingamadoodle eat?

rejohnsn@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu
Mon, 16 Dec 1996 13:29:18 -0600

On 14 Dec 1996, R. Gaenssmantel wrote:

<Ed applauds Chris for asking the question in the header, then...>

> Robert S. Carlsen (rcarlsen@macconnect.com) wrote:
> [...]
> : How about photosynthesis for starters.
>
> I don't think so. As far as I understand the first organic 'cells' were
> probably formed in great depths (of water) under hot and anaerobe conditions.
> This environment would not allow any photosynthesis. However, would assume that
> certain organic molecules would have been been able to get through the 'skin'
> of these 'cells'.

Ralf, you give them too much credit. Note that the question was about
Organic Thingamadoodles, not cells. In the absence of a definition of
Thingamadoodle, we must infer from the modifier "first" that they were
asking about, well, the first organic thing(amadoodle). That would have
been an organic chemical, and a chemical does not a cell make. I didn't
take orgo, so I don't know the technical difference, but I do know that
"organic" and "inorganic" refer to characteristics of compounds --
presumably having something to do with carbon. In any event, the First
Organic Thingamadoodles were compounds that involved carbon, and even
that kind of compound doesn't have to eat.

So the answer is...nothing, because it didn't get hungry, because it
wasn't alive.

The answer to the next obvious question (what did the First Living
Thingamadoodle eat), I would guess, would be First Organic Thingamadoodles.

BTW, I just heard on the radio that a Federal Gov't study recommends
doing away with the 12th grade...given the general scientific ignorance
epitomized by Ed, that is a truly terrifying thought. I guess
the Feds figure that high school grads generally aren't stupid enough yet.

Cheers,
Rebecca Lynn "HA HA! I ain't got no exams this term!" Johnson
Ph.D. stud., Dept. of Anthropology, U Iowa

Hatrack ratcatcher to port weapons...brickbat lingerie!!
-- Cdr. Susan Ivanova, B5