Origin of Life

Another point in common for all these neovitalistic authors was the acceptance, albeit incomplete, of the postulates on the origin of life by Erich Wasmann (1859–1931). This prestigious German entomologist and Jesuit priest was probably the most vocal opponent to Haeckel and saw in him the worst enemy of science (Lustig 2002; Richards 2008, Chap. 9). Wasmann’s first studies on slave-making behavior in ants were done under the influence of his anti-Darwinian convictions. But his researches on myrmecophiles (guests of ants) during the period 1901– 1903, radically modified his opinions of evolutionary explana- tions (Lustig 2002; Richards 2008, pp. 360–367). Wasmann then became an advocate of evolutionary theory and its com- patibility with the Catholic doctrine. In 1903, he published a work that summarized his research and its evolutionary impli- cations: Die modern Biologie und die Entwicklungstheorie, reedited in 1904 and 1906 and translated into English in 1910 (Wasmann 1910). The author recognized that “the theory of evolution is indispensable to an explanation of the interesting facts of myrmecophily and termitophily” (Wasmann 1910, p. 340). This work was considered by Haeckel as a “masterpiece of Jesuitical sophistry ” (cited by Richards 2008, p. 360) and actu- ally sparked his very last public lectures in Berlin. Haeckel proclaimed the irreconcilability between the theory of evolution and any religion-inspired account of a scientific fact, especially the teachings of Jesuits and particularly the most dangerous among them, “Father Erich Wasmann, not only because that writer deals with the subject more ably and comprehensively than most of his colleagues, but because he is more competent to make a scientific defense of his views on account of his long studies of the ants and his general knowledge of biology ” (Haeckel 1906, p. 171). The Berlin lectures by Haeckel held over three days in 1905 in the Sing-Akademie had a spectacular public impact. In 1907, Wasmann accepted an invitation to deliver three lectures and participate in a public discussion with scientists, also in Berlin, attended by thousands and attracting much media attention (Wasmann 1912). In contrast to Haeckel’s Darwinian creed, Wasmann considered the origin of life to fall outside the scope of evolutionary explanations since for him it was a philosophical, not a scientific, issue (Wasmann 1912, p. 6).

When evolutionary direction is discovered, elucidating whether it occurs by divergence or convergence is not straightforward. In invertebrate mitochondria, as more recently evolved (and more advanced) vertebrates were located on the end of invertebrate I data, results indi- cated that invertebrate I and II evolution diverged from the opposite side of vertebrates. Nuclear, chloroplast and plant mitochondrial evolution is expressed by the same regression line based on Chargaff’s second parity rule (Figure 6). In nuclei, chloroplasts and mitochondria from plants, amino acid compositions deduced from complete genome data were very similar, although they differed from animal mitochondria [24]. In the present study, regression lines based on plant chloroplasts, mi- tochondria and nuclei overlapped, while animal mito- chondrial regression lines converged at the same single point. Finally, all extended regression lines representing chromosomes, chloroplasts, plant mitochondria, verte- brates and invertebrates I and II converged at the same point (Figure 6). Therefore, I conclude that there is one single origin of life from which all organisms derived. This is consistent with the chemical conditions during prebiotic evolution, in which primitive replicators such as ribosomes would have formed [31], and in which primitive life forms would have similar cellular amino acid compositions presumed from those of present or- ganisms [32,33]. Thus all advanced forms of life, as de- duced using genomic data in this study, descended from a single origin.

could have been a rich source of energy and of elements such as sulfur, iron, and phosphorous that have played an important role in biogenesis. Life arose through five hierarchical stages of increasing molecular complexity in the hydrothermal vent environment about 4 billion years ago [4]. Prebiotic synthesis began amidst a chaotic chemical mixture of cosmic ingredients as that present in the Murchison meteorite. Molecular selection at each hierarchical level offered a pathway by which smaller components could organize themselves into more complex molecules such as cell membranes, RNAs, proteins, and DNAs that became highly organized leading to the first cell. To paraphrase François Jacob [134], the origin of life does not produce innovation from the scratch, but owing to cumulative effects of hierarchical history on prebiotic synthesis. Nature functions by integration. It works on what already exists like a tinkerer who, during millions of years slowly fine-tuned the products step by step by natural selection that culminates in the emergence of the highly organized first cell. But once life had started, further evolution had to proceed mainly through mutation or the slight tinkering of already existing DNAs. But these were merely variations on previous cellular structures.

Abstract: In this study, a theory on Advanced Panspermia of Origin of Life and Evolution is proposed by establishing (i) striking planetary similarities observed for parents and their children of their respective birth times similar to matching bands in DNA Fingerprinting images of them establishing heredity; (ii) the number of DNA entries required to differentiate one person from the other being identical to the number of planetary configurations that would result (iii) the Lunar Magnetism Orchestrated Menstrual Cycle in Symphony of Reproduction of Life, and (iv) Cambrian Explosion witnessed origin of complex vertebrates simultaneously and all of a sudden. All the above comprise the strongest scientific evidence in the “Breakthrough of “Advanced Panspermia of Origin of Life and Evolution”. Perhaps, the totipotent cell, formed in space under abiotic conditions during the early days of the solar system, picks up different magnetic signals from out of the solar symphony and at different stages of its development and the DNA is thus programmed. These pre-programmed magnetic memories may be evoked later in evolution when similar magnetic signals are repeated. Life came into being from space brought by star dust on the Earth with each major change of climate for evolution at intervals of simple multiples of Geological Time Scale ‘Periods’. The study also discusses of how the Sun, Moon, and planets telegraph their effects to us, via interplanetary space striking Earth's magnetosphere, which are perceived by the neural network of the living beings, which are genetically predisposed to hear specific planetary signals.

To write that our understanding of the origin and early evolution of life faces major unsolved problems is an understatement. However, the scientific community recog- nizes them as intellectual challenges and not as requiring metaphysical explanations, as proponents of creationism would have it. This is an important lesson to be taught in the classroom. As in other areas of evolutionary biology, answers to questions on the origin and nature of the first life forms can only be regarded as inquiring and explanatory rather than definitive and conclusive. This does not imply that all origin-of-life theories and explanations can be dismissed as pure speculation, but rather that the issue should be addressed conjecturally, in an attempt to construct not a mere chronology but a coherent historical narrative by weaving together a large number of miscella- neous observational findings and experimental results (Kamminga 1986). Textbooks on cell biology, biochemistry, and molecular biology are peans to a materialistic view of life, and the discussion of the origins of life in the classroom, whether as part of evolutionary biology courses or as separate lectures, can assist the students in understanding that the molecules and structures that underlie the basic properties of cells and organisms are not the outcome of deux ex machina processes but the outcome of evolution.

According to this advanced view, the origin of life means an establishment of organized information, capable of further potentially limitless enrichment of its content (complexity) and its dynamic organization. With the origin of life in- formation as an active principle of nature gains the ability of causation from the top to bottom (from the whole to its parts, from the cell to its molecules). It en- sures holism of living cells. Here we are faced with a relatively new notion of in- formation, sharing some basic connotations with the Shannon’s information theory, yet at the same time far exceeding it. As an active principle behind living processes, information arises as a powerful natural principle. It works in and through mater, yet it is casually “above” it. Life, therefore, has its special prin- ciple that surpasses ordinary (inanimate) physical and chemical world, but is on the other hand a natural principle, like matter, time, space etc. This principle re- sides in the inanimate matter as a potential—and emerges when the suitable conditions arise. In the following we shall try to elaborate a little more these possible conditions and propose a hypothesis that they are not so exceptional and bound only to some distant past on the Earth or even some distant part of the universe.

The origin of life and beginnings of evolution, as depicted by this theory has the general feature of an auto-catalytic cy- cle involving a strong coupling between biotic and abiotic processes, driven by the goal oriented and universal process of increasing the entropy production of Earth in its inter- action with its solar environment. This great auto-catalytic cycle involving life and abiotic entropy producing processes remains to this day, and appears to be evolving towards still greater efficiency at producing entropy. Since the appearance of chlorophyll, new pigments capable of capturing ever more of the Sun’s spectrum have been incorporated into the photo- synthesizing systems of today’s plant and bacterial life. Ex- amples are the carotenoids in green plants, the phycobilins in phytoplankton, and the recently discovered mycosporine-like amino acids (MAA’s) in phytoplankton which absorb across the ultraviolet (Whitehead and Hedges, 2002). Most of these pigments are known not to have a direct role in photosyn- thesis. Furthermore, a number of complex mechanisms ex- ist in plants today to dissipate into heat photons absorbed in excess. These pigments and mechanisms have hitherto been considered merely as “safety valves” for photosynthesis (Niyogi, 2000). Alternatively, they may now be explained on thermodynamic grounds through their importance to photon dissipation and the water cycle (Michaelian, 2009, 2011).

metabolic redox reactions discussed above, such as RNA synthesis or formation of peptides or other complex organics, or polymerization of phosphates to create energy currency. Any of these could be incorporated into a fuel-cell-like experiment and could benefit from electrochemical techniques. For example, it has been recently shown that Fe 2+ can cause some biological RNAs to become redox active (Athavale et al. 2012; Hsaio et al. 2013), and thus in an early Earth hydrothermal system it is possible that these redox-active RNAs might participate in the electrocatalytic function of a hydrothermal chimney system along with the inorganic components (cf. McGlynn et al. 2012). Another example could be studying the generation of condensed and/or activated phosphates, which are necessary at the origin of life to function as energy currency molecules similar to ATP (Baltscheffsky 1996). It has been proposed that green rust, a redox- active iron oxy-hydroxide mineral that efficiently absorbs phosphate (Barthelemy et al. 2012; Antony et al. 2008), might be capable of forming pyrophosphate bonds via regulation of proton flow through mineral layers (Arrhenius 2003; Russell et al., 2013); alternately, pyrophosphate could be formed via substrate phosphorylation within a hydrothermally precipitated membrane (Barge et al. 2014; Martin and Russell 2007). Incorporating components like these into electrodes in a fuel cell experiment might yield new prebiotically plausible ways to synthesize necessary high-energy molecules.

As we have already pointed out, the situation regarding the origin of life appears similar. Of course, in this context, the problem resides in the identification of what is the analogous of the background radiation and of its relics. To this aim, it is important to remind that the more universal is a trait, the more ancient should be its origin. In this article we present a review of our work on the (recently found) mathematical structure of the nuclear genetic code. We will show how such structure can be seen as a good candidate for this scope. We apply the Cosmology analogy regarding the background radiation and study the organization of the genetic code accordingly: hypotheses on origins are verified by comparing theoretical predictions against the empirical evidence of the existing organization. We cannot reproduce the origin of life but we can propose verifiable theories. We might even hope to find “mathematical relics” that go back close to the life “Big Bang”. Perhaps it is not a simple coincidence that the theoretical physicist George Gamow, which first proposed the Big Bang theory for the origin of the universe, was also the first to propose a mathematical organization (turned out to be wrong) for the coding of amino acids along the double helix of DNA, the so called Gamow’s diamond code. Quoting Knight and Landweber (2000):

acquire catalytic activity due to preserved the proteinoid with a large molecular weight and relatively complex and ordered multi-space structure, and relatively high catalytic activity. Thus the microspheres would spontaneously go to self-organizing, and evolve into primitive life. Key words: proteinoids; microspheres; dissipative structure; molecule selection; origin of life.

However, clear lines are drawn in the boundaries between all science subjects in Japan. The topic Origin of Life is included in biology but not in physics, chemistr earth science. The textbooks used in high school are also strictly segmented as required by the Government Curriculum Guidelines. Strict segmentation between science subjects conflicts with the more flexible image of the four core ideas. Some directions can be taken to ensure that Origin of Life is included in the developmental content of textbooks or class room teaching and in the new subject Science Project Study in the Government Curriculum Guidelines. There is some freedom in the developmental content, expansive learning, and Science Project Study. Teachers may select topics that overlap the interdisciplinary areas of science. The Japanese approach to interdisciplinary science areas such as Origin of Life is narrow and sectarian in subjects; by contrast, the approach in the USA is wider and more flexible than that in the Government Curriculum Guidelines in Japan.

Abiogenesis or informally the origin of life is the natural process by which life arises from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds. Abiogenesis is studied through a combination of paleontology, laboratory experiments and extrapolation from the characteristics of modern organisms, and aims to determine how pre-life chemical reactions gave rise to life on Earth. The study of abiogenesis can be geophysical, chemical, or biological, with more recent approaches attempting a synthesis of all three. Life itself is dependent upon the specialized chemistry of carbon and water and is largely based upon five different families of chemicals. Lipids are fatty molecules comprising large chemical chains of hydrocarbons and play an important role in the structure of living cell membranes, actively and passively determining the transport of other molecules into and out of cells. Carbohydrates are sugars, and as monomer units can be assembled into polymers called polysaccharides, such as cellulose, the rigid chemical of most plant cell walls. Nitrogenous bases are organic molecules in which the amine group of nitrogen, combined with two hydrogen atoms, plays an important part.

According to Legare, Evans, Rosengren & Harris [53], although they are often conceptualized in contradictory terms, the common assumption that natural and supernatural explanations, i.e. beliefs, are incompatible is psychologically inaccurate. On the other hand, there is considerable evidence that the same individuals use natural and supernatural explanations to interpret the same events and that there are multiple ways in which both kinds of explanations coexist in individual minds. In this sense, knowing the beliefs about the origin of life and life after death brings with it a series of data that could be controversial. Knowing the beliefs of people also knows an elementary part of them: their behavior. This is because beliefs can be seen as a conceptual substrate that plays an important role in the thinking and action of each person [47].

It is usually thought that the interdependent system of DNA, RNA and proteins that sustains today’s cells is too complex to have arisen de novo. A prime candidate for a simpler biopolymer system that could have existed in early organisms is the RNA world hypothesis [2-5], which envisages that RNA sequences played both the genetic and catalytic roles. This is supported by the fact that RNA is the key component of the ribosome and by a large number of experimental studies of ribozymes in vitro [6-14]. In stronger forms of the RNA world hy- pothesis, it is argued that RNA sequences were the first autocatalytic biopolymers, and hence the first living system, rather than just an intermediate step between the origin of life and current life. It is then necessary to demonstrate that formation of functional RNAs was possible by non-living chemistry. Progress continues to be made on mechanisms of prebiotic synthesis of nucleo- tides and RNA oligomers [15-22]. In our view, the case that the origin of life occurred via an RNA world is quite strong, but it is still far from proven. Several authors have emphasized the difficulties associated with the RNA world and have considered alternative scenarios [23,24]. A review discussing why the RNA world is currently the best theory we have for the origin of life, despite acknowledged limitations, appeared very recently [25].

The nature of the spontaneous origin of life on Earth is one of the big ques- tions remaining unsolved by Science. The Urey-Miller experiments [1] and sim- ilar synthetic chemistry approaches demonstrate that most of the individual building blocks found in living systems would have existed on the early earth, as suggested by the Oparin-Haldane primordial soup theory [2]. A number of in- teresting but basically implausible schemes take the problem forward from there and differently assemble these small molecules into polymers which, in order to get us to the present day, have to explain the development of systems of repro- duction and also systems of metabolism. A favourite later intermediate scenario for the reproduction part of this is the “RNA world”, where somehow or another a primitive version of the nucleoside polymer RNA appears and gets to work replicating itself from surrounding necessary chemical substrate units [3]. Apart from the vanishingly remote probability aspect of this, no-one has resolved the metabolic part of this RNA world which is left in the air. For somehow, not only does the RNA precursor molecule have to appear, but it must do so together with a system of energy abstraction which enables it to maintain an energy ad- vantage over its surroundings. The main schemes to take us from the simple molecules to the RNA world or similar complex life chemistry include hydro- thermal vents [4], Iron-Sulfur world [5], Zinc world [6], clay hypothesis [7], deep hot biosphere [8], radioactive beach [9], lipid world [10] among others, and panspermia, the appearance of life from other worlds, which latter we may ig- nore as it merely transfers the problem elsewhere.

; (http://www.google.com is excellent and see the Interna- tional Society for the Study of the Origin of Life and http:/ /www.panspermia.org). But there is no consensus. There is instead wide range of interest and a wide range of ideas to which The Zn World is one more useful model. Author's response: The suggested concept of a Zn world com- plements the RNA world model by suggesting a physically and geologically plausible habitat for RNA-based life forms. Fur- thermore, the recent data of Sutherland and co-workers on the elevated photostability of natural nucleotides [17]support, in fact, the Zn world concept. It seems necessary to emphasize here that the "replication first" models, such as the RNA world, leave biologists happy but cannot completely satisfy those with a background in physics or physical chemistry who realize that RNA life would be thermodynamically implausible unless cou- pled to some utilizable energy source. In contrast, the "metabo- lism first" schemes are favoured by some physicists, chemists,

A few scholars have invoked the solar radiation as a poten- tial source of energy for the origin of life (see e.g. [74-85]). However, the idea of driving the abiogenesis directly by solar energy has not won much support, despite the Sun being by far the most powerful energy source on this planet [16,45,86]. The limited acceptance of this idea is probably due to several factors. First, only short-length UV quanta carry enough energy to drive primeval organic syn- theses in the absence of enzymes [75]. These quanta were available on the primordial Earth: in the absence of the ozone shield, the UV component of the solar light was by 2–3 orders of magnitude stronger than now [87,88]. However, the same UV quanta would cause photo-disso- ciation of organic compounds. Therefore, most scholars considered the UV irradiation of the primordial Sun to be a hazard for the first life forms and suggested searching for life origins at the sea floor (see e.g. [87]). Second, as the energy of UV quanta could be utilized for the synthetic reactions in many different ways, there has been no con- sensus on the particular mechanisms involved. For exam- ple, considering the ways of CO 2 fixation, Mauzerall and co-workers advocated the idea of CO 2 photo-reduction to formaldehyde in the presence of dissolved ferrous hydrox- ide [83,89,90], while other authors have argued that sev- eral naturally occurring minerals possess the properties of broad-band semiconductors and could perform abiogenic photosynthesis [81,91-93]. Further, since there are several minerals with this capacity, different authors advocated participation of different minerals in the primordial (photo)syntheses. Bard and co-workers [92,93], and, more recently, Senanayake and Idriss [94] studied the photosynthesis on the surface of TiO 2 (anatase/rutile),

On the other hand, the differences found between the beliefs towards the origin of life, death and life after death according to the age of the persons, indicates that those who are between the ages of 31 and 60 do not believe in immortality, in which at the moment of death, the soul travels to the beyond, to one of the places assigned by God, while the body stays on the earth, subject to a process of decomposition [53]. They do not have the certainty of the existence of a later life and a chain of successive lives [56, 57]. They consider that the biological death is the cerebral death (the central death) and finally the death of the whole organism (the total death) [46]; unlike people who are 61 or older who believe in a divine order, where the place that corresponds to each species is predetermined and immutable; or, they focus on the expectation that when they die, they come to an encounter with God who judges the facts of life and whose destiny is eternity [51, 52]. For this group, earthly life is only transient, for full existence begins after death; with this, the idea of eternity becomes a central axis in their lives.

The main provisions of hierarchical thermodynamics created on the basis of Gibbs thermodynamics are presented. The thermo- dynamic theory of the origin of life, its evolution and the aging of living beings is presented. The theory considers the change in the specific Gibbs function of the formation of structures of differ- ent hierarchies, that is, the change in the comparative stability of these structures in the course of their evolutionary transforma- tions. The described approach should be considered structural kinetic thermodynamics, which allows us not to consider any kinetic mechanisms of processes in the evolution of various hier- archical structures. It is asserted that the principle of substance stability determines the direction of the processes of the origin of life and its evolutionary transformations. The thermodynamic theory of aging and thermodynamic nutrition allows predictions concerning healthy life and its duration. It is shown that hierar- chical thermodynamics is the physical foundation of expanded Darwinism. All the conclusions and predictions of the theory are confirmed by numerous observations and experimental facts.

In 1871, Charles Darwin in a private letter to his friend, the English botanist and explorer Joseph D. Hooker, suggested that life may have had a chemical origin [1]. However, for lack of an in depth analysis, or perhaps to avoid perturbing the conservative public of his time, Darwin wrote in his 1859 book “On the Origin of Spe- cies” that, “God first blew life into one or a few forms, and then evolution took over”. One hundred years later, inspired by Oparin’s 1924 suggestion of a material origin of life [2], Miller and Urey [3] showed that subjecting what was then the best hypothesis for the gasses of the prebiotic atmosphere (methane, ammonia, water, and carbon dioxide) to electric discharge was sufficient to produce at least 11 of the 20 then known amino acids making up the proteins of life (actually there are 22 known amino acids of life). Since then, many other similar experiments have demonstrated abiogenic routs to, not only the amino acids, but also to the nucleic acid bases, the ribose-like sugars, and the polyphosphates; the basic constituents of RNA and DNA, the probable first molecules of life [4,5].