[stormer]

Why? The chemicals involved are virtually universal - created in the first moments of the big-bang. Remember, matter is neither created or destroyed.

[metmom]

So, all those chemicals left to themselves will just sort of self-assemble under the *right* conditions?

And how long do those *right conditions* have to last to produce chemical structures complex enough to be viable?

[UCANSEE2]

created in the first moments of the big-bang. Remember, matter is neither created or destroyed.

If it cannot be created or destroyed, how can it be created in the first moment?

[Texas Songwriter]

Why? The chemicals involved are virtually universal - created in the first moments of the big-bang. Remember, mater in sneither created or destroyed.

You might look at the the theory of the bang. It wasn't until hundreds of thousands of years after it banged into existence that the universe expanded and cooled enough to allow atoms to form. If electons momentarily met with protons to form a helium nucleus they were quickly split apart by photons, which themselves were trapped in a process of continual collision with the free electrons. This meant that the photons could not travel very far in a straight line and scattered.

Heavier elements were not formed, as you say, in the first moments of the big-bang. See 'opaque universe'.