Weird Science

This is yeast, or it will be.  According to what I've read if I leave a bowl of flour and water out on the table, it will magically attract yeast from the air and become bread starter.  Who figured that out?  From the lore I've heard this is how it was done years ago, and has been done since the beginning of time.  What genius looked upon a souring bowl of flour and water and thought, "I can use that!"?  Shawn thinks my talk of feeding the bread is creepy.  This is day 2.  Each day I'm disposing of half of the old batter and replacing it with 1/2 c flour and 1/2 c warm water.  When 7 days are up it should be yeasty enough to use in bread.  I'm already drooling over the thought of some sourdough pancakes--make with local yeast!