There are many
indicators supporting this thesis and hinting at a probable link between radioactivity
and biosynthesis. For example there is the fact that all known uranium deposits
are enveloped in thick layers of carbonaceous bitumens containing kerite crystals
composed of C, H, N, O and S. Kerite’s fibrous structure and properties are
very similar to those of simple organisms and its chemical composition is nearly
identical to that of proteins. Significantly, it also contains 13 of the 20
amino acids of living cells. There is in addition the interesting connection
between fossil stromatolites, colonies of primitive cyanobacteria, and uranium
deposits, frequently found in close association with each other.
The next phase of prebiotic evolution is more problematic as
it involves the structuring and cooperative action of complex molecules. In
support of this phase we invoke many experimental investigations performed in
recent decades, demonstrating that, given biogenic elements as a substrate,
irradiation from various sources does result in synthesis of an array of complex
compounds with molecular weights up to approximately 80 kDa. Most significantly
not only have several amino acids been thus produced but also all five DNA/RNA
based nucleotides. Also included were formic acid, oxalic acid and formaldehyde,
all potential precursors for synthesis of more complex organic compounds such
as carbohydrates. Polymerization and cyclization reactions were commonplace.
These data lend compelling support to the idea that radiation can indeed act
as a particle and energy source driving such bonding reactions.
The first point to retain from the brief history of energy/matter
we have reviewed above is that, whether it concerns fundamental particles or
complex molecules, matter does not exist in isolation. It is a social unit,
functioning in groups. Furthermore every unit of matter has an identity, a history
and a memory of that history. In a paper entitled Computational Capacity of the Universe published in October 2001, Seth
Lloyd, then at MIT, says:
“Merely by existing all physical systems register information,
and by evolving dynamically in time they transform and process that information.
The laws of physics determine the amount of information that a physical system
can register and the number of elementary logic operations that a system can
perform… It is known that fundamental interactions between … particles allow
the performance of logic operations… and every time those particles interact
they perform one or more elementary operations…”
In other words, by its very existence matter contains information,
and that information is its history – the state it’s in now as well as all the
influences it ever absorbed in order to reach that state. That history or memory
is held in and by the structure of matter, in its electronic configuration,
which is continuously being broadcast in the form of electromagnetic waves forming
an exquisitely fine and detailed image not only of the matter in question but
also of the environmental pressures being exerted on it. This fact is what allows
us to investigate the nature of our cosmos, from elementary particles to proteins
to galaxies. In the same way as they communicate with us through our specially
designed sensors, particles communicate with each other, that is to say that
they radiate their message to whichever other particle is able to sense, absorb
and register it. We shall qualify this energy and information
radiation as the fifth major transduction of gravitational energy.
Matter is therefore constantly interacting with other parts
of its environment in a relationship one could characterize as a flow of stresses,
with each particle seeking to establish a state of equilibrium or even dominance
within its own zone of influence.
<
previous
page -- next page >