cross section,
the most efficient were found to be asymmetrical units with a heterocyclic purine
nucleoside acceptor and a pentose ring for electron storage. All that is missing
is a phosphate donor to make up ATP or a DNA/RNA nucleotide.
Other commonly derived structures closely resemble a straight
chain tetrapyrrole or a short length of DNA/RNA backbone with sulfur atoms in
place of phosphates. Furthermore it was found that two-photon excitation of
certain dyes provides a means of activating chemical or physical processes with
extremely high spatial resolution. The large driving force available for electron
transfer reactions, even to relatively weak acceptors, allow this type of molecule
to function as a highly efficient and precise polymerization initiator. This
effect will drive the synthetis of more complex morphologies including long
chain polymers allowing virtually infinite data storage capacity. In the situation
of radiogenic pockets on the Archaean Earth, small heterocyclic molecules as
described above, probably combined with conjugated chains, would tend to be
synthesized as a result of constant bombardment by beta and gamma particles,
and be competitively selected in the first instance according to their efficiency
in metabolizing and directing highly energetic photons and electrons. This phase
would most probably be followed by evolution of macrocycles, a step particularly
applicable to the tetrapyrrole-like structures which will cyclize to form porphyrins,
one of the most ubiquitous and highly conserved molecules in the biological
realm, precisely because they are so efficient at processing photons and electrons.
Also generated because of their energy transduction efficiency would be low
molecular weight nucleic acids and other highly conserved very small catalytic
micro RNAs composed of two or three nucleotides, e.g. cyclic diguanylic acid
with two nucleotides joined in a macrocycle by phosphodiester bonds.
Such small-molecule modulators and nucleic acids are now known
to regulate a diverse array of metabolic functions and, without mediation of
enzymes, directly to catalyze various types of bond formation including C-C
bonds. We shall characterize the synthesis
of directed charge storage and transfer molecules as the sixth transduction
of gravitational energy. Assuming that, in this high energy bath, a selection
of such polymeric, cyclic and macrocyclic catalytic molecules manage to establish
a state of dynamic stability, the common adaptive response directed toward stress
neutralization by mutual equilibration of the molecules would result in a process
of symbiotic mutualism. In such a
phase, all unsuitable or non-complementary species would be eliminated, leaving
a series of complementary cooperative molecules, each and every one partaking
in maintaining mutual stability in what will have become a functioning
system. This system is driven by the need to precisely control and process
the constant pressure emanating from its radiogenic environment, in a high energy
photosynthetic analog. We shall characterize the process of symbiotic
equilibration by mutual charge neutralization to be the fifth major transduction
of gravitational energy. The question now is – What species of molecule
would tend to form mutually stabilizing associations under these conditions
and why? Tackling the last part of the question first, obviously species associate
because each one provides some element which the other(s) need in order to maintain
equilibrium over time.
Summarizing the various points raised above, maintaining a
state of temporal dynamic equilibrium, the primary requirement for continued
existence of any system, demands that species fulfill the following specification:
1. Species must acquire, store and transduce energy in order to maintain a state
of dynamic equilibrium both internally and externally.
2. Based on No.1 above, species will sense, acquire and store environmental
data in their structure.
3. Based on Nos. 1 and 2 above, species must organize this energy and
data so as to permit manipulation and reconfiguration of their environment,
both internal and external, necessary for an effective stress analysis and response
leading toward equilibrium.
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