In Science We Trust: Evolution Creates Life

But he should be payed attention, of course).

Hawking is the main author of The Grand Design with his name enormously enlarged, while the font size of the secondary author

oristarA wrote:

But he should be payed attention, of course).

So you sayed.

No big deal, Oris, but those who want to grammar police the language of others invite such "corrections."

Payed vs. Paid
Payed is now considered obsolete according to some dictionaries. However, it is in the Bible (both as paid and payed!), and may be the reason some still spell it the 'archaic' way.
...
Archaic does not mean incorrect. Nevertheless, I would stay with paid simply because it has become the accepted spelling, especially in business.

I know I'm probably in the minority, but in the expression "to pay a visit", the past tense I would write as payed a visit, I don't know why, but it just seems more natural to me. If the standard accepted form is different, then I guess it's something I am personally at odds with. Every other usage I can think of would be consistent with paid. Maybe the "paid" version seems to much like "purchased/gave money for", so in line with it being a different meaning, my mind has given it the different past tense.

Most readers would consider "payed" to be an error. While it may have been used at an earlier time in history, and the English language doesn't have a central body that can decree "this is no longer correct," to me that's enough of a reason not to use it.

These are just variant spellings, nuggets. Our dictionary mentions "payed" as an alternate spelling for "paid". There is no difference in meaning. I ordinarily use "paid". "Payed" looks strange to me.

I think it is clear that paid is the accepted spelling these days. However, we write stayed instead of staid: this struck me as I read Jane Austen writing in the early 19th century who consistently wrote staid. Many other similar words also use -ed: prayed, sprayed, bayed.

Two other words have -aid: laid and said, although it might be added that said contains a different vowel than say.

I'm not sure how to take that, Sparky. I thought my grammar and spelling skills were above the British average, and I do care about these things. I used "payed" earlier in the thread and explained why.

Anyway call it ignorance but I didn't know until now that 'payed' was an incorrect spelling, I always assumed it was one of those variable spellings like 'spelled' and 'spelt'. I preferred 'payed' because it's the less irregular of the two, and I'll continue to use it in informal settings because I don't like propagating irregularities. To be perfectly honest I think the English language would be a little better off without all the 'paids' and 'saids', but then that's partly the result of coming from (an area of) Scotland where we pronounce 'said' as 'sayed' so that's how I'd like to write it. Anyway, rant over, I suppose we must stick to the 'correct' usage for now and hope that the ignorance of the youth will eventually restore the more logical 'payed' spelling.

I also have the same question in my mind. I'm confused what to use just like in check deposit or cheque deposit. Well, great to know that I can use both paid and payed!

Quote:

Hawking is the main author of The Grand Design with his name enormously enlarged, while the font size of the secondary author

I like how you back down. First you made a big deal that Hawking was alone

Then you made a big deal thatLenny was merely an editor (when that was untrue)

Now hes a de-minimus secondary author.

What nxt?? full agreement??

Too bad he doesnt know of what the hell he speaks(Therefore you know even less).

I knew Leonard Mlodinow is the coauthor at the very beginning.

MISCONCEPTION: Evolution is a theory about the origin of life.

CORRECTION: Evolutionary theory does encompass ideas and evidence regarding life's origins (e.g., whether or not it happened near a deep-sea vent, which organic molecules came first, etc.), but this is not the central focus of evolutionary theory. Most of evolutionary biology deals with how life changed after its origin. Regardless of how life started, afterwards it branched and diversified, and most studies of evolution are focused on those processes.

MISCONCEPTION: Evolutionary theory implies that life evolved (and continues to evolve) randomly, or by chance.

CORRECTION: Chance and randomness do factor into evolution and the history of life in many different ways; however, some important mechanisms of evolution are non-random and these make the overall process non-random. For example, consider the process of natural selection, which results in adaptations — features of organisms that appear to suit the environment in which the organisms live (e.g., the fit between a flower and its pollinator, the coordinated response of the immune system to pathogens, and the ability of bats to echolocate). Such amazing adaptations clearly did not come about "by chance." They evolved via a combination of random and non-random processes. The process of mutation, which generates genetic variation, is random, but selection is non-random. Selection favored variants that were better able to survive and reproduce (e.g., to be pollinated, to fend off pathogens, or to navigate in the dark). Over many generations of random mutation and non-random selection, complex adaptations evolved. To say that evolution happens "by chance" ignores half of the picture. To learn more about the process of natural selection, visit our article on this topic. To learn more about random mutation, visit our article on DNA and mutations.

The world is a more exciting place to live in knowing that people like you also lived in it. Many thanks for all your mind-opening researches and for constantly remaining positive and giving the best of yourself despite your health condition. Because of this, I will always keep you in mind as a moral and intellectual example.

Scientists usually propose a four-stage process of formation for the first life:
1A. formation of small organic molecules (amino acids, nucleic acid bases,…),
1B. and these combine to make larger biomolecules (proteins, RNA, lipids,…),
2A. which self-organized, by a variety of interactions, into a semi-alive system
2B. that gradually transformed into a more sophisticated form, a living organism.