In spite of ingenious experiments, imaginative theories, and unshakable faith in supreme forces, there is no way to know how life began. What is certain is that in the course of the development of the universe existing sources of energy fused to generate atoms, and atoms mingled to become small molecules. At some point by chance or design-according to one's belief, but no one's evidence-small molecules such as hydrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, water, and ammonia reacted to yield larger molecules with the property most essential to life: self-replication. Such molecules had to achieve a proper balance between the stability needed for their survival in the environment and the mutability for the generation of many forms of life. How amino acids were created or how DNA, RNA, and proteins developed remains a mystery. But we know that a simple core of nucleic acid embedded in a protein coat made the simplest unit of life (except for viroids). Whether viruses are a primitive or degenerated form of life is not known. Once proteins appeared, their great structural plasticity allowed them to react with other elements such as sulfur, iron, copper, and zinc. After an incalculable number of years, some of the proteins became capable of catalyzing the synthesis of new nucleic acids, new proteins, and other compounds such as polysaccharides and lipids.

In tracing their origin and their fate, the beginning and the end of their environment, humans have often been guided by curiosity. Such concern has helped man to discover, among other things, the structure of the universe from star to atom and the evolution of life from unicellular organism to human being. The study of disease is unique. Although it may have been in spired by the curiosity of a few, it has always been the concern of all, because preventing or curing disease has meant survival not only of individuals, but of entire nations, not only of humans, but of fellow living creatures. If greed, force, religion, and language have been major causes of wars, diseases, more than arms, have often decided the outcome of battles and thereby have woven the pattern of history. For millennia, a large fraction of the human race believed that disease expressed the wrath of God(s) against individuals or societies. Therefore, only priests or priestesses, kings, and queens were endowed with the power of healing. In the West, Hippocrates is credited for exorcising this concept of disease and for objectively describing and cataloguing them. The contributions of Greek physicians to Western medicine made possible more accurate diagnoses and prognoses."