There was a drawback, however. Eternons were creating a growing number of complex molecular structures. To avoid unwarranted interactions, these structures needed their own local environment. The solution was to place them into separate units.

What was the look of the primal life capsules? We have a good idea thanks to present-day blue-green algae and bacteria which are improved versions of their billion year old forebears.

It all started with tiny bags, no greater than 1/25,000 of an inch, made of layers of orderly molecules. These bags were filled with water, and contained a variety of mineral and organic substances. They lacked a well-defined kernel, or nucleus, but represented a superb improvement on the free-roaming world of early amino acids, proteins, and nucleic acids. The cell was born. Eternons have been, and still are, using cells to construct all the organisms we know,  from acacias to zucchini, and from aardvarks to zebras.