"Tim Tyler"  wrote in message
news:brb1nr$2o2r$1{at}darwin.ediacara.org...
> William Morse  wrote or quoted:
>
> > If your question is what conditions are necessary in
order for life to
> > arise, the answer is that there must be an energy
gradient,  and an
> > energy source which can impart sufficient energy to the
molecules
> > present to overcome the activation energies required to
create more
> > complex molecular assemblages. Note that the activation
energy can be
> > lowered by catalysts, which is why Tim Tyler among
others believes that
> > clays may be significant in the origin of life.
>
> That's why practically everyone else thinks clay minerals
are significant
> in the origin of life - because they are great catalytic
agents for
> primitive carbon chemistry.
>
> My own reasoning is a bit different:
>
> Living organisms genomes are regular repeating
structures - rather like
> crystals.
>
> If you look at the simplest natural systems that form
regular repeating
> structures (though not so regular that they can't store
information) you
> are basically left looking at a line-up consisting solely
of clay minerals.
>
> Organic chemistry doesn't come into it - organic compounds
tend to form
> sticky tars - not self-organising structures like
crystals.  About the
> only structure they self-organise into is spheres - which
are almost
> totally useless for transmitting heritable information
with any fidelity.
>
> Organic compounds are too "sticky".  By contrast, clays
readily
> self-assemble - but also readily fall to bits again.
>
> The very property that makes organics so good at building
high-tech
> organisms makes them totally unsuitable candidates for the
first
> organisms - and the fact that crystals fall to bits easily
makes
> them useless for building advanced organisms out of - but
helps
> greatly in forming the first, "naked" genes - since in the
> process of crystal formation, molecules that self-assemble
> "incorrectly" can easily self-disassemble again - and
> self-reassemble in the correct, more stable state -
resulting
> in natural error correction.
>
> It is quite simple to see the effect in action.  All you
have to
> do is glance at a micrograph of kaolinite to see that
there is
> a high fidelity copying process going on - that makes
hundreds
> and thousands of near-identiacal copies of a template,
preserving
> information - in terms of the shape of the cross section,
and
> details of the fault structure - in the process.
>
> You can see such a micrograph of kaolinite on:
> http://originoflife.net/information/
>
> This is happening in clays every day - all over the
planet.
>
> No mixture of plausibly-prebiotic organic chemicals has
*ever*
> shown *remotely* this sort of potential for high-fidelity
copying
> of information - and this sort of template copying and the
> resulting information transfer is the very *foundation* of
all
> living organisms.
>
> There are four books on this subject:
>
> ``The life puzzle: on crystals and organisms and on the
possibility of a
>   crystal as an ancestor, A. G. Cairns-Smith, Oliver and
Boyd, 1971;
>
>   Genetic takeover - and the mineral origins of life, A.
G. Cairns-Smith,
>   Cambridge University Press, 1982;
>
>   Seven Clues to the Origin of Life - a scientific
detective story,
>   A. G. Cairns-Smith, Cambridge University Press, 1985;
>
>   Clay minerals and the origin of life, edited by A. G.
Cairns-Smith and
>   Hyman Hartman, Cambridge University Press, 1986.''
>
>  - http://originoflife.net/cairns_smith/
>
> ...and I have a web site devoted to the subject.
>
> It attempts to explain how the origin of life was solved -
in some detail,
> and leaving precious-little room for doubt - 37 years ago.

I think you are definitely on the right track here! I recall
reading a very nice article in Sci. Am. a few decades ago on
"Penrose Tilings" of the plane, work which helped to
ultimately lead to the recognition of quasicrystals as a
distinct class of materials---looking at pictures of those
tilings could not help but make one appreciate the
importance of such general symmetries (or rather,
dissymmetries) in Nature--and the property of growth of
certain systems. Clays, or something like them, are
well-suited to a role in the primitive formation life...the
devil is only in the details.
:)        ...tonyC

> http://originoflife.net/
> -- 
> __________
>  |im |yler  http://timtyler.org/  tim{at}tt1lock.org  Remove
lock to reply.
>
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