[bluejay]

http://news-info.wustl.edu/tips/page/normal/793.html

Take a peek at that, it might interest you, if you are actually looking for answers, and not tilting at windmills.

It is interesting, but does not directly answer my question. (Anyway, she is talking about cyanobacteria, not early bacteria.) My basic question is about the odds of life first developing, and then evolving.

[Jaguar1942]

Must have been pretty darned good, considering we're here....