Modern science could be said to mark its birth with the publication of Newton’s PRINCIPIA MATHEMATICA in 1687. Since then information on every conceivable subject, on every scale from the sub-atomic to the cosmological, has been gathered at an exponentially increasing rate. The result is that today researchers are labouring under an information overload making it impossible for them to read more than a tiny fraction of the thousands of papers published weekly or occasionally even daily in their particular discipline. One has only to spend an hour or two searching the Internet to get an impression of the huge amount of data available. Now the question is this: does all this information stem from isolated, unconnected phenomena or is every bit a piece of a large, very large puzzle which will eventually be assembled to reveal a single, coherent picture? Another way to put this question might be to ask whether events in nature occur randomly, in some totally arbitrary sequence, or must each event necessarily be connected causally to a previously established state, in which case we could, theoretically at least, regress ultimately to a prime cause, the origin of the puzzle. The following pages are devoted to a study of this question that concerns us all. What we are as human beings, our relationship to nature, to the cosmos, are profoundly affected by the answer. If nature is chaotic and composed of random accidents, of which we would presumably be one, then most probably our existence is meaningless. If on the other hand nature proceeds and progresses according to logical rules, in a word evolves, then we are part of that process and as such we may have a “role” to play, we can have significance. It is essential for every one of us to have at least a general understanding of the processes leading to the Big Picture, if indeed there is one. Only by making this effort will we ever know what we are and how we relate to the changing universe we inhabit.

advanced | beginner | any questions?

 

 

The Origin of Life and Evolution of the Cosmos

© 1993-2007

RESEARCH GRANTS Limited grants will be considered for established institutions interested in investigating one or more of the following subjects: 1. Determination of binding affinities between cyclic trinucleotides and specific amino acids including definition of resulting molecular structures at atomic resolution (2 Å or less). 2. Characterization of chemical and physical environment in which cyclic trinucleotides can perform as host-guest reaction vessels to synthesise amino acids from selected precursor elements including hydrocarbon solvents. 3. Investigation of radiochemical reactions resulting from Uranium granules acting on various hydrocarbon solvents under pressures up to 3 GPa and temperatures up to 500°C, including characterisation of molecular species synthesized with emphasis on macrocycles and their interactions with solvent. Initial inquiries should be e-mailed to: paul@pinter.plus.com