From Real Clear Science:
When biologists get together to discuss the nagging mysteries in their diverse field, there’s always that elephant in the room: How did life spring up from non-life? But, according to highly regarded cancer researcher Robert Weinberg, it’s an elephant that most biologists ignore, or at least discreetly avoid. “Origin of life is not something people work on that much because it’s so far away from resolution.”
Instead, biologists turn their attention to other problems, fruits that hang a bit lower on the tree. Though these queries may not be of existential interest, they’re no less fascinating.
Your Nobel? Here’s one:
It is a beautiful irony that the smallest of creatures is at the center of one of the largest mysteries in biology. Plankton, microscopic marine organisms, are wide-ranging and diverse. Strangely, as many as a dozen species can co-exist in relatively small, homogenous habitats, like lakes. This flouts the hugely successful competitive exclusion principle, which states that when multiple species vie for the same resources, one will eventually drive the others to extinction.
It’s no paradox if you dismiss Darwin first. Just a fact. Enjoy the rest.
PS: We don’t really know that the competitive exclusion principle IS hugely successful, only that one can easily get permission to teach it as such. It could be flouted all the time in nature, but why would THAT matter, compared to what taxpayers are compelled to fund?
See also: Why origin of life is such a hard
(origin of life)