Coma Berenices

Life is taught through its mistakes  

Critical in the process of breeding, at some point, is the so-called “transmutation”: i.e., the production of copies that are not accurate but differ in one or more details from the originals. This "mistake" of nature – if it can be called a mistake at all! - is the trigger of natural selection. Molecular chains which will survive after a hard struggle for existence, have better reproduction skills and adaptability than the original ones.  

Living matter "improves" itself constantly. It is a slow process towards more complex, but more specialised units. Yet, unlike the improvement of a car or a machine, nature is simultaneously a designer and a manufacturer. Therefore, it does not have the capability to design its living units from scratch. It can simply move on to a higher organisation, causing or trying out small changes to the original plan, the one imprinted in the DNA molecules.

Whatever the case might be, and whether the occurrence of the self-reproducing compound was an abrupt incident, or it constituted the final product of countless tests while the centuries went by, the evolution towards more complex forms steadily approaches the complexity of living matter. (...)  

With the tendency for coexistence and cooperation, which gives more chances of survival in a competitive world, simple single-celled organisms compose the complex cells of the more advanced forms in the course of time. Earth is still dangerous for the gestation of life, mainly because of the ultraviolet radiation it receives, defenceless against the Sun. (...)