The big bang, Hiroshima, Dynamite.
We all have a fascination with explosions.
They excite us, terrify us, confuse us, define us.
Yet, over 500 million years ago an explosion took place that shook the very fabric of life.
An explosion with fallout seen around us ever day.
An explosion that led to the dawn of man.

The Cambrian explosion, unlike the big bang didn't happen all at once, but it seems like it. While earth had spent the last 3 billion years at a slow crawl through evolution, from accidental lipid membranes and spontaneous RNA to bacteria, protists. Life moved at a much slower pace. The Cambrian explosion changed that! In roughly 25 million years life went from mostly soft, slimy creatures to having strong structures! This lead to more complex creatures with more complex behavior! It was the ripples of this explosion that allowed a simple ape to pick up a rock. To sharpen a stick. To stand, walk, run. To become man. To learn, to pass on memes as well as genes! To create language and communication! To read this very poem.

In a world without the Cambrian explosion, we might as well have skipped the big bang too.