The Genomic Potential Hypothesis: A Chemist's View of the Origins, Evolution and Unfolding of Life
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Edited By:Christian SchwabeMedical University of South Carolina ISBN: 978-1-58706-044-1 Published: 2001-08-01 |
The Genomic Potential Hypothesis is a biochemist's view of the origin, evolution, and development of life. Large numbers are second nature to a biochemist and though he rarely ever thinks of it explicitly, the concept of mass action is a part of the definition of chemistry. The origin of life, from that perspective, will turn into an event that occurs on the molar scale in units of 1023 and is driven not by needs of biological systems but by mass action, energetics, structure, and kinetics. This approach to evolution entails the total denial of constructive accidents. Mutations are a reality and while most of them are of no consequence or detrimental, one cannot deny that on occasion a beneficial mutation might occur. However, to invoke strings of beneficial mutations that suffice to reshape one animal into the shape of another is not merely unreasonable, it is not science. Evolution will be restricted to the reorganization of nuclear material in line with equilibrium constants and kinetic parameters that govern the quasi two-dimensional chemistry of nucleic acids. The actual evolution occurs at the cellular level and is noted only by the results appearing in the fossil record as small versions of the final form.
Chapters available from this book
The Genomic Potential Hypothesis: Introduction
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Development of Biological Potential
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The Origins of Species
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The Condensation of Life
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The Origin of Complexity
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Clearly, molecular complexity was a precondition for biogenesis. Contiguous molecular structures are monkey bars for electrons that provide the stream of energy required to extend that complexity to a level not observed in the abiotic world and to constantly ren...
Genomism and the Nature Trail
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How does one present any new idea, which is in principle impossible to proof? Hypotheses are self-limiting and an old paradigm of evolution will fall victim to its errors in logic. In biology in particular (because it is so close to our skin), old paradigms tend...
Life in a Tenuous Universe
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The question is, do we live independent of the shape of our universe, or are we an intimate partner as well as a beneficiary of its peculiar structure and its awesome dimension? The space-time that life needs to exist has been torn out of matter energy in the co...
