Re: new model for the origin of life

From: Tim Tyler (tim_at_tt1lock.org)
Date: 02/08/05 

Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2005 14:30:22 -0500 (EST)

awjmuller <anthoniemuller@aol.com> wrote or quoted:

> The model (www.arxiv.org/abs/q-bio.PE/0501013.pdf) does not only deal
> with the first metabolism/energy source, but it also treats the
> emergence of the genetic code. Has anyone a comment to that?

The first sentence apparently seems to have missed some things:

``Today's organisms use three types of energy sources: fermentation,
  photosynthesis and respiration.''

For some reason, you've apparently omitted to mention nuclear power, wind
power, wave power, hydrothermal energy, energy created by falling water
and turbines and the petrochemical industry.

As far as the rest of the paper goes, it seems to be about RNA and
convection - two things I rate as being highly unlikely to have much
to do with life's actual *origin*.

In particular, this:

``The self-organization of life must have involved a self-
  organizing dissipative structure (Nicolis and Prigogine,
  1977; Haken, 1978) that was inanimate. Few are known
  (Anderson and Stein, 1983). The convection cell is the most
  prevalent, and is therefore a suitable candidate for the
  origin of life, of interest for thermosynthesis because its
  contents is thermally cycled.''

...doesn't make much sense to me. I class river formation,
crystal growth processes and eddies as "self-organizing
dissipative structures" - so the assertion that "few are known"
seems to be at odds with the facts.

How a convection cell is "more prevalent" than a vortex,
a branching drainage pattern or crystal growth is
something that doesn't seem to make much sense to me.

Also, the premise is questionable. Logically, there do not have
to be any self-organising precursors to living systems. The
first living system could have chanced itself into existence -
as can easily happen in computer simulations of replicating agents.

I don't think that's what happened - but I don't think such scenarios
can be written off as not being possible. 

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