How Molecular Forces and Rotating Planets Create Life : The Emergence and Evolution of Prokaryotic Cells PDF

by Jan Spitzer

Part of the Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology series

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A reconceptualization of origins research that exploits a modern understanding of non-covalent molecular forces that stabilize living prokaryotic cells.

Scientific research into the origins of life remains exploratory and speculative. Science has no definitive answer to the biggest questions-"What is life?" and "How did life begin on earth?" In this book, Jan Spitzer reconceptualizes origins research by exploiting a modern understanding of non-covalent molecular forces and covalent bond formation-a physicochemical approach propounded originally by Linus Pauling and Max Delbruck. Spitzer develops the Pauling-Delbruck premise as a physicochemical jigsaw puzzle that identifies key stages in life's emergence, from the formation of first oceans, tidal sediments, and proto-biofilms to progenotes, proto-cells and the first cellular organisms.

Spitzer argues that non-covalent molecular forces, acting in cycling geochemical processes, bring about phase separations-the creation of purified, lower entropy, potentially living biological matter. Geochemical cycling processes-diurnal solar radiation and tidal hydration-dehydration-underpin life's emergence and evolution. After presenting a physicochemical view of how non-covalent molecular forces stabilize a bacterial cell during its cell cycle, Spitzer assembles the puzzle pieces into a working provisional picture of life's emergence. He classifies early Archaean evolution as micro-evolution, meso-evolution, and macro-evolution according to physicochemical mechanisms that can modify the nucleoid during a prokaryotic cell cycle. Finally, he describes some experimental ideas, based on cyclically driven processes.