melodysheep - The Unbroken Thread

Singers:

Carl Edward Sagan

Jane Goodall

David Frederick Attenboroug

Sagan:

Let's take a trip to examine

This common basis of life

A voyage to investigate the molecular machinery

At the heart of life on Earth

Attenboroug:

All life is related

And it emables us to construct with confidence

The complex tree that represents the history of life

Our planet , the Earth , is as far as we know

Unique in the universe , it contains life

Here plants and animals proliferate in such numbers

That we still have not even named all the different species

Darwin's great insight revolutionized the way in which we see the world

We now understand why there are so many different species

Sagan:

Every cell is a triumph of natural selection

And we'er made of trillions of cells

(Within us is a little universe)

Those are some of the things that molecules do

Given 4 billion years of evolution

(We are , each of us , a multitude)

Now how did the molecules of life arise?

Attenboroug:

It began in the sea

Some 3 thousand million years ago

Complex chemical molecules began to clump together

These were the "seeds"

From which the tree of life developed

They were able to split , relicating themselves

As bacteria do

Sagan:

The secrets of evolution

Are time and death

There's an unbroken thread that stretches

From those first cells to us

The secrets of evolution

Are time and death

There's an unbroken thread that stretches

From those first cells to us

Every cell is a triumph of natural selection

And we'er made of trillions of cells

(Within us is a little universe)

Those are some of the things that molecules do

Given 4 billion years of evolution

(We are , each of us , a multitude)

Goodall:

There isn't a sharp line dividing humans

From the rest of the animal kingdom

It's a very wuzzie line

It's a very wuzzie line

And it's getting wuzzier all the time

We find animals doing things that we

In our arrogance

Used to think was "just human"

It's a very wuzzie line

And it's getting wuzzier all the time

Sagan:

Every cell is a triumph of natural selection

And we'er made of trillions of cells

(Within us is a little universe)

Those are some of the things that molecules do

Given 4 billion years of evolution

(We are , each of us , a multitude)

Every cell is a triumph of natural selection

And we'er made of trillions of cells

(Within us is a little universe)

Attenboroug:

Our planet , the Earth , is as far as we know

Unique in the universe , it contains life

Its continued survival now rests in our hands