which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And there was evening, and there was morning: the second day. Then God said: Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good and right, and He filled the earth with every living creature.4 This biblical account, along with others in a similar vein dating back to the most ancient Babylonian civilisations, has recently been drawing renewed interest beyond its traditional philosophical and theological significance. This is particularly the case as scientists around the world, intrigued by new research on the origins and possible evolution of the universe, are considering it in the context of our own age of profound climatic change.5 If, on the one hand, the scientific literature has long acknowledged that water has always existed throughout the universe and reached the Earth some four billion years ago through the bombardment of icy comets, on the other hand it is now almost universally accepted among inquisitive scientists that the early Earth, as portrayed in the biblical account, may have been nothing other than a world of water without continents. This perspective, which at first sight might appear to be an ontologicalmetaphysical detour with a purely theoretical tone, in fact provides a compelling phenomenological basis for advancing new frontiers of research into water, including on other planets. Among these are the studies pursued with notable success by Adomas Valentinas on Mars, research that seems to open the way to what could aptly be called a second genesis.6 However future research may turn out on the scientific question of water as the primordial factor of the universe7, yet it remains a fact, well known and 4 Genesis, 1,1-10. 5 For example, the cosmogonic poem Enūma Eliš, which describes the birth of all things out of primordial chaos as the mingling of Apsû’s fresh waters with Tiāmat’s salt waters. For an in-depth study of the subject see for all L. Cagni, La religione della Mesopotamia, in Storia delle religioni. 5: Religioni dell’America precolombiana e dei popoli indigeni, Roma-Bari, 1997. 6 Adomas Valantinas, is a famous postdoctoral fellow at Brown University who made headlines in the scientific literature for leading a team of researchers to discover water on Mars. In a significant first step, researchers led by Valentinas detected water frost on the solar system’s highest volcanoes, i.e. they revealed that Mars’ Tharsis volcanoes have patches of water frost, challenging previous assumptions about the Martian climate and helping to shed light on how water behaves on the planet. See, for a passionate and useful reading on the subject, A. Valantinas, N. Thomas, A. Pommerol, et al. Evidence for transient morning water frost deposits on the Tharsis volcanoes of Mars. Nat. Geosci. 17, 608-616, 2024. 7 On the importance of this element for the survival of the Earth, just consider the fact that water is so overwhelming that it shifts the tilt of the Earth’s axis with the inevitable consequences for climate change and rising sea levels. See the seminal study by K.W. Seo, D. Ryu, J. Eom, T. Jeon, J. S. Kim, K. Youm, et al, Drift of Earth’s pole 430 FRANCESCO GASPARI | LUIGI CAMERIERO
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