Evolution is unproved and unprovable. We believe it only because the only alternative is special creation, and that is unthinkable.
Arthur Keith

2.1 Introduction

Nature is an interesting mystery box. It follows the principle of “evolve or dissolve.” Our life is the result of many changes introduced into systems and surroundings, where surroundings refer to the environment and systems include living things. With the evolution of technology, we can now record, analyze, conclude and store the evidence of the things happening. But what about the past years, where evidence recorded in nature may not be easy for us to decode? Nature followed the same principle at that time but technology had not yet evolved, due to which the evidence of prehistoric and historic eras is either not preserved or insufficiently recorded.

The Homo erectus species appeared on this living planet between 1 million to 30,000 BC. They are believed to be the first living beings to create and use tools for hunting, digging, scraping, cutting and developing spoken language.

In the prehistoric period, information or knowledge was passed from generation to generation by word of mouth and was not written down, otherwise known as “oral tradition”. After the invention of writing—roughly 5,000 years ago—gathered knowledge was recorded in written form on rocks, bhojpatra (thin stripes/sheets of the processed bark of the Himalayan birch tree) and later on papyrus (tadpatra). The development of writing enabled knowledge to be stored and passed across generations with much greater reliability. Combined with the development of agricultural practices, which allowed for additional food, it became possible for early civilizations to develop, allowing more time to be devoted to tasks other than survival, such as the search for knowledge for knowledge’s sake.

In Sumer (now Iraq) the Mesopotamians started recording their observations of the world with extremely thorough numerical data on clay tablets as early as 3500 BC (Figure 2.1).

However, lots of knowledge has been lost due to man-made destructive activities like war and natural hindrances or calamities like earthquakes, tsunamis, cyclones, floods, volcanic eruptions, meteor showers, etc.

However, nowadays, by using advanced technology scientists are trying to capture history, many of them with much success. So, in this chapter we will discuss evolutionary theories of the prehistoric era and the presence of nanotechnology in it.

2.2 Evolutionary Study and Theories

Prior to looking at the evidence of the existence of nanoparticles let’s look at the evolution of matter and living beings as seen through the eyes of various great cosmologists, physicists, chemists and biologists. The word “evolution” generally refers to the biological evolution of living things. But the processes by which planets, stars, galaxies, and the universe appear and alter over time are also “evolutionary.” In all of these cases there may be a difference over the period as expressed by scientists. The universe is one of the amazing creations of the different smallest atoms that exist in space; these atoms are nothing but nanoparticles which have aggregated together. They might have come together under different situations and conditions to build such huge living and nonliving systems. Different predictions have been made by many scientists about the creation of the universe from a scientific point of view as well as by some religious people through a spiritual concept. But the connecting link between both scientific theory and religious concept is the “Big Bang theory.” This concept was proposed by Georges Henri Joseph Édouard Lemaître (1894–1966), an associate of the Royal Astronomical Society, who was a Belgian Catholic priest, astronomer and professor of physics at the Catholic University of Leuven. He proposed the theory of the expansion of the universe, widely misattributed to Edwin Hubble. Lemaître was the first to derive what is now known as Hubble’s law and made the first estimation of what is now called the Hubble constant, which he published in 1927, two years before Hubble’s article [1]. In a series of articles, Lemaître called the Big Bang theory the “hypothesis of the primeval atom” or the “Cosmic Egg” [2–6]. We would like to mention here that many ancient astrologists, cosmologists and scientists had accepted the word “Brahmanda,” which is composed of two words, “Brahma” meaning universe and “anda” meaning egg, for this universe.

These explanations, for want of other frameworks from which to approach the subject of the origin of the universe, and the size and shape of matter, have always had spiritual, mythical and theoretical foundations. The scientists of recorded historic eras have been able to give their version of the facts based on experimental scientific methods, such as the work of the Italian astronomer, physicist and mathematician Galileo Galilei (1564–1642); sophisticated geometrical methods for measuring the orbits and sizes of celestial bodies and for predicting astronomical events developed by Greeks, Egyptians, Indians and Chinese; and technologies developed by the Incas, Mayas and Aztecs to read the movements of the stars. It is surprising how we can understand the physical universe in a rational manner and that it can be researched through the methods of physics and astronomy developed in our laboratories and observatories. The perception of this scientific dimension and capacity was revealed to us most clearly in the first, second and third decades of the 20th century. But the history of cosmology (the structure of the universe) and cosmogony (the origins of the universe) neither begin nor end there [7, 8].

To correlate the existence of nanotechnologies, if any, in the prehistoric era, it is important that we understand the origin of the universe and our own planet Earth. Some of the milestone theories that have given us an understanding of our solar system, shifting and expanding galaxies, the events encompassed in space and time and their relativity, etc., are discussed below.

2.2.1 Aristotelian Theory

Based on the geocentric model presented by the Greek astronomer and mathematician Eudoxus of Cnidus (c. 400–350 BC), who was born in present-day Turkey, Aristotle (384–322 BC) established that the Earth was a sphere. He arrived at this conclusion after observing the shadow cast during a lunar eclipse. According to Aristotle all bodies are composed of four elements: earth, water, air and fire. These elements naturally move up or down, fire being the lightest and earth the heaviest. Aristotle asserted that the world did not come into being at one point, but that it has existed, unchanged, for all eternity (it had to be that way since it was “perfect” and according to him a sphere was the most perfect of the geometrical shapes); the universe is in a kind of “steady state scenario.” He also calculated the size of the Earth to be 50% larger than it really is. Aristotle’s geocentric model consisted of 49 concentric spheres which he believed could account for the movements of all the celestial bodies. The most external sphere was that of the fixed stars, which controlled the behavior of the inner spheres. The starry sphere, in turn, was controlled by a supernatural mover (entity).

2.2.2 Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity

In 1915, Einstein introduced the revolutionary General Theory of Relativity. In this, space and time were no longer absolute and no longer a fixed background to events. Instead, they were dynamical quantities that were produced by the matter and energy in the universe. If the universe was essentially unchanging in time, as was generally assumed before the 1920s, there would be no reason that time should not be defined arbitrarily far back. Any so-called beginning of the universe would be artificial in the sense that one could extend the history back to earlier times. Thus, it might be that the universe was created last year but with all the memories and physical evidence to look like it was much older. This raises deep philosophical questions about the meaning of existence. But with a positive approach we can interpret this idea in terms of a model we make of the world. One cannot know whether the model represents reality, only whether it works. A model is good if it first interprets a wide range of observations in terms of a simple and elegant model. And second, if the model makes definite predictions that can be tested and possibly falsified by observation.

2.2.3 Hubble’s Hypothesis

Hubble’s milestone contribution (using the larger Hooker telescope for taking long exposure of galaxies and measuring the amount of red shift) was calculated values for the galaxy velocities. He concluded that galaxies were similar to each other in size so those that appeared smaller must be farther away. By plotting the graph of velocity of the galaxies against their distance he came to know the interesting relationship.

Hubble’s velocity-distance relationship suggests that once we look beyond the gravitational effects of close galaxies within the local group, galaxies are moving away from one another. Not only are they moving away but the more distant galaxies appear to be moving away faster than closer ones. This then suggests that the universe is expanding, and indeed this is now the most widely accepted interpretation of the data. The other key point arising from the relation is that if we go back in time we can see that galaxies must have been closer together and space was smaller.

The Big Bang hypothesis led to testable deductions such as the temperature in deep space today should be several degrees above absolute zero. Observations showed this deduction to be correct. In fact, the Cosmic Microwave Background Explorer (COBE) satellite launched in 1991 confirmed that the background radiation field has exactly the spectrum predicted by a Big Bang origin for the universe.

As the universe expanded, according to current scientific understanding, matter collected into clouds that began to condense and rotate, forming the forerunners of galaxies. Within galaxies, including our own Milky Way galaxy, changes in pressure caused gas and dust to form distinct clouds. In some of these clouds, where there was sufficient mass and the right forces, gravitational attraction caused the cloud to collapse. If the mass of material in the cloud was sufficiently compressed, nuclear reactions began and a star was born.

Some proportions of stars, including our Sun, were formed in the middle of a flattened spinning disk of material. In the case of our Sun, the gas and dust within this disk collided and aggregated into small grains, and the grains formed into larger bodies called planetesimals (very small planets), some of which reached diameters of several hundred kilometers. In successive stages these planets coalesced into the nine planets and their numerous satellites. The rocky planets, including Earth, were near the Sun, and the gaseous planets were in more distant orbits.

The ages of the universe, our galaxy, the solar system, and Earth can be estimated using modern scientific methods. The age of the universe can be derived from the observed relationship between the velocities of and the distances separating the galaxies. The velocities of distant galaxies can be measured very accurately, but the measurement of distances is more uncertain. Over the past few decades, measurements of the Hubble expansion have led to estimated ages for the universe of between 7 billion and 20 billion years, with the most recent and best measurements within the range of 10 billion to 15 billion years. The very low amounts of elements heavier than hydrogen and helium in the stars of the Milky Way galaxy indicate that they must have formed early in the history of the galaxy, before large amounts of heavy elements were created inside the initial generations of stars and later distributed in the interstellar medium through supernova explosions (the Big Bang itself created primarily hydrogen and helium atoms). A second method for estimating the age of our galaxy is based on the present abundance of several long-lived radioactive elements in the solar system. Their abundance is set by their rates of production and distribution through exploding supernovas. According to these calculations, the age of our galaxy is between 9 billion and 16 billion years. This is how the universe evolved. After successive changes in the universal state, biological evolution started. Biological evolution deals with the evolution of humans from apes. According to time, the past is broadly divided into the prehistoric era and historic era.

2.3 Prehistoric Era

Prehistoric means “before history,” which comes from the Latin word “præ,” meaning before, and the Greek word “ιστορία,” meaning history. The prehistoric period in the history of mankind is from approximately 200000 BC to about 3500–2500 BC, when the first civilizations began to take shape.

The age when prehistoric man began to use stones for a serviceable purpose is termed the Stone Age, which can be broadly categorized into three different ages: Paleolithic (from unknown till 8000 BC), Mesolithic (8000 BC–4000 BC) and Neolithic (4000 BC–2500 BC).

The Paleolithic Age was larger compared to the others and was divided into lower, middle and upper age. In this age humans began to take part in activities like hunting and moving for their survival. To perform these activities they started to use stones of variable size.

In the Mesolithic Age they started to live together for their safety and survival from any natural calamities and used stones for the storage of food and pointed weapons for fishing and removing the skins of animals.

The last period of the stone age, the Neolithic Age, marked the beginning of plantation and agricultural activity and colonization, where people lived together in huts made up of wood and prepared different vessels for food storage colored with natural colors extracted from rocks. The major invention of this age was the wheel, which was used for transportation. Specialized stone tools, colors and vessels were prepared during that time [9].

During the prehistoric era, since communication was most likely done without language, people were unable to keep records and used different shapes of stones for their respective work. Hence, the existence of nanotechnology or natural nanoparticles can only be assessed by analyzing what is presently available.

2.4 What Is Nanotechnology?

Nanotechnology is the engineering of functional systems at the atomic or molecular scale to a size of 1–100 nm. Fabrication of a nanomaterial is based on the projected ability to construct items from the bottom up, using techniques and tools being developed today to make complete, high-performance products. But it cannot be denied that nature has this ability to construct nanoparticles, which has played an important role in evolution.

One nanometer (nm) is one billionth, or 10^–9 of a meter. By comparison, typical carbon-carbon bond lengths, or the spacing between these atoms in a molecule, are in the range of 0.12–0.15 nm, and a DNA double helix has a diameter of around 2 nm. On the other hand, as mentioned in Chapter 1 of this book, the smallest cellular life forms, the bacteria of the genus Mycoplasma, are around 200 nm in length. By convention, nanotechnology is taken as the scale range 1–100 nm following the definition used by the United States National Nanotechnology Initiative. The lower limit is set by the size of atoms (hydrogen is the smallest atoms, which are approximately a quarter of a nm in diameter), since nanotechnology must build its devices from atoms and molecules. The upper limit is more or less arbitrary but is around the size below which phenomena not observed in larger structures start to become apparent and can be made use of in a nanodevice [10]. Nano-sized particles ranging below 10 nm are of great interest because the chemical and physical behavior of the particles arising from the quantum size effect, which are remarkably different from those in bulk form, have great potential for use in applications in the electronic, chemical and mechanical industries; in addition to the related technologies using catalysts, drug carriers, sensors and pigments, as well as in magnetic and electronic materials [11].

Going through the different references and above data, I think that, due to lack of knowledge in the prehistoric era, the evidence of nanotechnology was not recorded. But there is the presence of nanomaterial in matter like fire, earth, air and water, because they are composed of an aggregation of nanomaterial.

2.5 Was Nature the First to Fabricate Nanomaterials?

A fundamental question is whether nature knew the importance of nanoscience and nanotechnology before us. Hochella et al., looked into this and tried to answer the question in their fairly recent published article, “Nanotechnology: Nature’s Gift or Scientists’ Brainchild?”, in which they concluded that the magic of nanomaterials is not new and that nature has been playing these tricks for billions of years [12]. We strongly agree with their view because nature has provided much evidence to believe it. As we have seen in Chapter 1, both biotic and abiotic nanoparticles have existed in nature since time immemorial. The first carbon nanoparticle reported by Sir Harold Kroto’s group was fullerene. We have evidence that it is found in deep space [13, 14] as well as in soot from burning organic material [15]. Moreover, Hochella et al., [16] have observed that there is an astounding range of variety and complexity in our naturally occurring nanomaterials. According to Tielens [14], “all matter in the universe (except most of the H and the noble gases), has at some time existed in a one-, two-, or three-dimensional nanomaterial.” Here is some evidence that supports the view that nanoparticles existed during the creation of the universe:

• NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has imaged a portion of the Eagle Nebula, which consists of pillars of gas and dust that are many light-years in length. From this nebula, stars are born within clouds of dust (of oxide, silicate, carbide, nitride, carbonaceous, and organic nanomaterials) and gas (mostly hydrogen). This was assessed by Rietmeijer [17] by infrared (IR) spectroscopy of “stardust” collected from meteorites during space missions. These eventually form a solar system.
• Németh et al., [18] have reported the presence of nanodiamonds of 1–3 nm size that they found in the Murchison meteorite (Figure 2.2).
• During the formation of the Earth’s 4.54 billion year life, nanomaterials have been continuously formed and destroyed. In this period, Earth must have been conducive to the continuous formation of new naturally occurring organic, inorganic, and mixed nanomaterials.
• Ancient nanostructures have been found in the Ural Mountains at a depth between 10 and 40 feet in a geological stratus between 20,000 and 318,000 years old. This mysterious structure makes one believe that there may have been a culture capable of developing nanotechnology 300,000 years ago. Leonardo Vinti has applied the term “Oopart” (out of place artifact) to many prehistoric objects found in various places around the world. These objects give a glimpse of the level of technology that might have existed in the prehistoric period. One such extremely tiny, coil-shaped artifact was found in 1991 during geological research associated with the extraction of gold in the Ural Mountains near the banks of Russia’s Kozhim, Narada and Balbanyu rivers (Figure 2.3 and 2.4).

These pieces include coils, spirals, shafts and other unidentified components (Figure 2.4). It is difficult to accept that they were manufactured because they are far too old. However, according to a report by Dr. E. W. Matvejeva given to the Russian Academy of Sciences in Syktyvkar [19], the unique shape suggests that they are manufactured and not naturally occurring metal fragments. These structures were studied and analyzed by the scientists at the Russian Academy of Sciences in Syktyvkar. According to their analysis, the largest pieces (measuring 1.18 inches) are copper, while the smallest are made of tungsten and molybdenum (measuring1/10,000^th of an inch, i.e., 2540 nm). Many small pieces exhibit golden mean proportions. The artifacts were studied at different facilities in Helsinki, St. Petersburg and Moscow, but the investigations ended in 1999 with the death of Dr. Johannes Fiebag, the principal investigator. This information was originally published in The Epoch Times in an article entitled “Russia’s Ancient Nanostructures.” Their findings have not been universally accepted, as some believe that the coils prove that the human race enjoyed a sophisticated level of technology in the Pleistocene era, while others believe that they are the work of extraterrestrials.

• In relation to life that originated on Earth more than 3.5 billion years ago [20] in the presence of these natural nanomaterials, there has been an interaction between the inorganic and organic nanomaterials to generate living system.

Bacteria that evolved in high metal concentration surroundings survived by converting and utilizing metal in nanoform; for example, Geobacter sulfurreducens, Thiobacillus denitrificans and Shewanella oneidensis found in iron-rich surroundings are capable of reducing iron to iron nanoparticles. For this purpose, bacteria utilize custom-made molecules like enzymes and other reducing agents present in them. These molecules are produced by the nano-size organelles present in the living cells of all species, such as mitochondria, ribosome, endoplasmic reticulum, and, above all, the DNA and RNA that have decided the existence of living organisms. With present-day knowledge we can say with certainty that the nanosized organs came into existence during the evolution of living system cells, and perhaps the first nanomaterial was DNA having 2 nm width. There are many prehistoric life forms, which are presented in Chapter 1.

2.6 Concluding Remarks

Without access to written records, scientists investigating the biotic and abiotic nanoparticles of the prehistoric era face special challenges. However, recent developments in science have indicated that the nanoparticles originated with the origin of the planetary system. Many ideas have been put forward by different scientists regarding chemical evolution such as Hubble’s hypothesis, Darwin’s theory and the Big Bang theory. The concepts of some scientists have been readily accepted, while the concepts of others have raised many questions. It is believed that living beings are also the result of the interaction of nanoparticles with bulk material and the environment, which is part of biological evolution. This theory was again brought forward by Darwin. He stated that there is DNA synthesized from nanosized nucleotides capable of storing large amounts of information, which is the only reason for biological evolution. Mutation in DNA leads to the diversity in living things, which includes microorganisms, animals, plants, etc. It is acknowledged that chemical evolution and biological evolution started from the finest atoms, which are nanomaterials or nanoparticles. These nanoparticles came together and joined, collapsed, reacted or repelled from each other to produce some energy. This energy proceeds with big or small changes to the surroundings, which is nothing more than evolution.

References

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