Re: [Vo]:Vital Dust

[Jess Tauber]

While not having read the book the nature of the origin of life has taken up a bunch of my own time on this world.  One thing one should remember is the role of much higher levels of radioactivity in those early days. Consider that many higher nuclides no longer present on the surface would still be raining down in meteors and in dust particles, and the different oxidation state of the atmosphere would mean much of this stuff would end up as insoluble sand after geological processing (though back then its still problematical whether continental drift had yet kicked in). Also remember the moon was not only brand smacking new, but that it was much closer to earth than it is now, so the month and the day were both shorter, and gigantic tidal waves would have been relatively common, which would help to mix components from both land and sea. And continuing bombardment by giant impactors might also have evaporated the lakes and seas which would concentrate the chemicals. How they would behave when hit by meteoritic or sonic impacta is anyone's guess. By way of my interest in the periodic table also note that today we've largely concentrated metabolism and structural biochemistry in p-block elements, at least the first few rows, but evidence seems to indicate that at one time much more of the periodic table was used in living processes. Only a couple of years ago some archaeal species (IIRC) were shown to be obligate users of a couple of f-block elements. The very complex coordination chemistry of f-and d-block metal atoms and complexes could easily have substituted for much more evolved functions today filled by biopolymers. Equivalent biopolymers tend to be larger and heavier in eukaryotes than in prokaryotes, the difference usually being due to extra parts that deal with regulatory processes that the prokaryotes lack. Reduction of use of the periodic table is also associated with the availability of the elements in the environment. Sure f-block metals can be very useful, but their separation and solubility could be real issues for any early life. In general the heavier the element the less common it is, and the harder it is for stars and supernovae to synthesize. Anyway, as a final note one should compare what may have happened here in the reduction of the life-used parts of the periodic system with how sign languages operate during their evolution and acquisition. Researchers have shown that early on the entire body is utilized, and only later the system settles on the space in front of the torso, which is closer to the face. Vocal language also appears to have reduced usage of up to hundreds of different phonemic distinctions (as in some click languages and many others both living and reconstructed) to a much narrower set of articulations. As with life and chemistry, the most frequently used sounds are the easier ones to produce and hear, and as the palette of sounds reduces, words themselves grow in size to make up the difference. Apparently different systems- languages and biochemicals, have hit on similar solutions to similar problems. The same is also true of the way genomes and languages can be classified,  the former into the major kingdoms and the latter into morphosyntactic types. Jess Tauber goldenra...@earthlink.net -----Original Message----- From: Russ George Sent: Mar 25, 2017 4:38 PM To: vortex-l@eskimo.com Subject: [Vo]:Vital Dust It turns out that universal chemistry has produced some entirely unexpected dusty trails to explaining the answer to the question of life, the universe, and everything… http://atom-ecology.russgeorge.net/2017/03/25/3788/