Thermodynamic Dissipation Theory Of The Origin And Evolution Of Life
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Thermodynamic Dissipation Theory of the Origin and Evolution of Life
Author: Karo Michaelian
language: en
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Release Date: 2016-12-30
How did life on Earth arise? This question has captured the imagination of curious minds ever since the dawn of humanity. Countless myths have been told, but a plausible scientific explanation has resisted 160 years of vigorous research since Darwin. Now, for the first time in this book, physicist Karo Michaelian reviews a bold new theory founded on non-equilibrium thermodynamic principles. As with all irreversible processes, life could only arise, proliferate, and evolve by dissipating an external generalized chemical potential. Michaelian identifies this external potential as the ultraviolet (UV-C) photon potential arriving at Earth's surface during the Archean and the fundamental molecules of life as "self-organized" microscopic dissipative structures, i.e. pigments in the UV-C. The theory is drawing a lot of attention because of its ability to explain many of the salient characteristics of the fundamental molecules of life and because it provides a reason for the evolution of a complex biosphere. Large amounts of empirical data from epochs all the way back to the beginning of life and from some of Michaelian's own experiments all support the new theory. The implications are serious for many contemporary paradigms concerning life and evolution. Even the cherished Darwinian paradigm, with its implicit metaphysical "will to survive," selection only at the level of the organism, and the inescapable tautology in "survival of the survivors" (irrespective of Popper's recanting) must be reformulated on thermodynamic principles, and the way to accomplish this is presented in the book. Michaelian concludes that life similar, and not so similar, to our own should exist everywhere in the Universe wherever there exists the organic elements, UV-C light, and a dissipative solvent medium. In fact, he suggests that we have already discovered extraterrestrial life on other planets of our own solar system, and even within the galactic interstellar clouds of gas and dust, but have yet to recognize it as such under the old paradigms. A program for best searching for this extraterrestrial life at the different stages of its dissipation development is detailed within the book. Karo Michaelian has Ph.D. in physics from the University of Alberta, Canada and has worked at various research institutes throughout the world in topics ranging from nuclear physics and nanoparticles to complex systems and non-equilibrium thermodynamics. His book makes fascinating reading in understandable language for the serious amateur but also contains much detail, including mathematical derivation of thermodynamic principles, for the professional who wants an in-depth understanding. The book contains 422 pages with 140 images and diagrams and 414 references. A detailed historical sketch of origin and evolution of life research is presented and critically analyzed, including; Ideas from Antiquity, Darwinian Theory, the Miller Experiments, the RNA World, Panspermia, and Gaia Theory. The thermodynamic foundations of the new theory are developed in the first 6 chapters and the corroborating evidence presented in the next 12. Another 2 chapters discuss contemporary paradigms in need of reform, and the last discusses dissipative life in other parts of the Universe. Mathematical demonstrations are left to boxes that can be skipped without much loss of continuity of argument. Analogies help to make the theory understandable to those who may not have formal training in mathematics or who lack an understanding of non-equilibrium thermodynamics.
Every Life Is on Fire
A preeminent physicist unveils a field-defining theory of the origins and purpose of life. Why are we alive? Most things in the universe aren't. And everything that is alive traces back to things that, puzzlingly, weren't. For centuries, the scientific question of life's origins has confounded us. But in Every Life Is on Fire, physicist Jeremy England argues that the answer has been under our noses the whole time, deep within the laws of thermodynamics. England explains how, counterintuitively, the very same forces that tend to tear things apart assembled the first living systems. But how life began isn't just a scientific question. We ask it because we want to know what it really means to be alive. So England, an ordained rabbi, uses his theory to examine how, if at all, science helps us find purpose in a vast and mysterious universe. In the tradition of Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, Every Life Is on Fire is a profound testament to how something can come from nothing.
Origin of Life via Archaea
This book surveys the models for the origin of life and presents a new model starting with shaped droplets and ending with life as polygonal Archaea; it collects the most published micrographs of Archaea (discovered only in 1977), which support this conclusion, and thus provides the first visual survey of Archaea. Origin of Life via Archaea’s purpose is to add a new hypothesis on what are called “shaped droplets”, as the starting point, for flat, polygonal Archaea, supporting the Vesicles First hypothesis. The book contains over 6000 distinct references and micrographs of 440 extant species of Archaea, 41% of which exhibit polygonal phenotypes. It surveys the intellectual battleground of the many ideas of the origin of life on earth, chemical equilibrium, autocatalysis, and biotic polymers. This book contains 17 chapters, some coauthored, on a wide range of topics on the origin of life, including Archaea’s origin, patterns, and species. It shows how various aspects of the origin of life may have occurred at chemical equilibrium, not requiring an energy source, contrary to the general assumption. For the reader’s value, its compendium of Archaea micrographs might also serve many other interesting questions about Archaea. One chapter presents a theory for the shape of flat, polygonal Archaea in terms of the energetics at the surface, edges and corners of the S-layer. Another shows how membrane peptides may have originated. The book also includes a large table of most extant Archaea, that is searchable in the electronic version. It ends with a chapter on problems needing further research. Audience This book will be used by astrobiologists, origin of life biologists, physicists of small systems, geologists, biochemists, theoretical and vesicle chemists.