A Modest Experiment: The Cambrian Explosion

Alert enrevanche reader and pal Laurie points us to A Modest Experiment: The Cambrian Explosion.

Project organizer Bob Davis wants to recreate the Cambrian Explosion in his home laboratory.

Since it took 60 million years (best estimates from the fossil evidence) and that time-frame is just a little too long for Bob, in the best Mythical Man-Month tradition, Bob is looking for 60 million volunteers to set up a beaker of "pre-Cambrian soup" in their home laboratories, kitchens or dens:

Intelligent Design (ID) has proclaimed that the Cambrian Explosion happened all at once. Scientists have looked to the fossil evidence to determine that it took up to 60 million years of Evolution. I have devised a simple test to determine the true answers to all of these, and more questions.

I have a beaker set up in my lab, and will have sixty million more beakers set up in labs around the world. I've created a soup of pre-cambrian chemicals, and pre-cambrian gases and pre-cambrian electrical storms.

Take that, Stanley Miller!