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From: bill@utastro.UUCP (William H. Jefferys)
Newsgroups: net.misc,net.bio
Subject: Re: Evolution
Message-ID: <141@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 22-Feb-84 14:29:14 EST
Article-I.D.: utastro.141
Posted: Wed Feb 22 14:29:14 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 24-Feb-84 00:33:45 EST
References: <922@ihuxl.UUCP>
Organization: UTexas Astronomy Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 27

>> Oil slicks?  And where did this oil come from?  I always thought
>> that oil came from plants and animals.  Ah, a new version of the
>> "chicken and the egg" question: which came first, the oil, or the
>> plants and animals?
>> 
>> Is there some other source of oil they didn't tell us about?

Warning: The following is highly speculative!

Professor Tommy Gold, of Cornell, thinks that most of the liquid
and gaseous hydrocarbons on Earth are of nonbiological origin, having
been trapped beneath the surface of the Earth when it was formed.
There was an article about this recently in the Wall Street Journal.
Needless to say, this idea has stirred up a hornet's nest of
controversy, and most scientists don't believe it.  Anyway, you
might be interested in digging up the article, which is very
interesting.  Gold, by the way, is one of the originators of the
Steady State theory of the universe (wrong) and invented the
rotating neutron model for pulsars (right).  His ideas are not
lightly dismissed.  (His theory, if correct, would not give comfort
to creationists, however.)
-- 

	Bill Jefferys  8-%
	Astronomy Dept, University of Texas, Austin TX 78712   (USnail)
	{ihnp4,kpno,ctvax}!ut-sally!utastro!bill   (uucp)
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