Kingdom of the Blue Diamond

Wealthy American industrialist Frank Hammont has offered a billion dollar prize worldwide to the first group of scientists who can reproduce the natural origin of the first cellular life on earth. Teams of researchers on several continents race to unravel the complex molecular chemistry that managed to assemble the first living cell. Resistance from dissenting forces who fear a test-tube replacement of God, threaten to end the research. An extrasolar meteorite crashes in the Bolivian highlands. Paleontologist Salvador Ruiz shelters his discovery, which will bring unimaginable fossil evidence that challenges the paradigm of Neo-Darwinism on earth. Dr. Greg Shepherd leads the origin of life research, advancing a scenario of the RNA World cellular origins, yet secretly suspects that something more tangible and profound than random mutation is at work in the scheme of the beginning of life on earth. Professor Tom Angelo struggles to introduce a visionary path of cellular evolution in academia, risking his career and reputation, traveling down the lonely, isolated path that many mistake for Intelligent Design. Autistic savant and brilliant Italian cellular biochemist Pasquale Cortano also advances into the fore front of the quest to determine the cellular origins of life. He stumbles into an inexplicable and spontaneous discovery that challenges his understanding of the natural complexity of cellular evolution. Remarkable truths and discovery result from the intersection of these events, closing in on a major shift in the theory of evolution, the true definition of Intelligent Design, and of the origin of all life on earth.