Self And The Phenomenon Of Life: A Biologist Examines Life From Molecules To Humanity

(Sean Pound) #1
Self and the Beginning of Life 69

“9x6” b2726 Self and the Phenomenon of Life: A Biologist Examines Life from Molecules to Humanity


  1. Gravity plays a lesser role.

  2. Of all the elements, the nucleus of iron contains the lowest amount of
    energy. Therefore, fusing lighter elements into iron releases energy,
    whereas fusing iron into higher elements requires net energy input.

  3. Many of these signaling proteins have enzyme activities, consisting of add-
    ing a phosphate group (phosphorylation) to a molecule, or removing one
    (dephosphorylation). Enzymes that perform phosphorylation are called
    kinases; those that perform dephosphorylation are called phosphatases.

  4. A steady state, in simple language, is constancy in a state of flux. As an
    example, a waterfall retains its shape and appearance despite rapid rushing
    of water.

  5. Schrödinger E. (1944) What is Life? The Physical Aspects of the Living
    Cell. Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, UK.

  6. Quoted by Webster G, Goodwin BC. (1982) The origin of species: A struc-
    turalist approach. J Soc Biol Struct 5: 15.

  7. Although minor deviations from the standard code do exist in mitochon-
    drial and chloroplast DNA, the uniformity is still overwhelming.

  8. Schidlowski M. (1988) A 3,800-million-year isotope record of life from car-
    bon in sedimentary rocks. Nature 333: 313–318.

  9. In a letter mailed to Hooker in 1871, Darwin stated: “It is often said that all
    the conditions for the first production of a living organism are now present,
    which could ever have been present. But if (and oh what a big if) we could
    conceive in some warm little pond with all sorts of ammonia and phospho-
    ric salts — light, heat, electricity, etc., present, that a protein compound
    was chemically formed, ready to undergo still more complex changes, at the
    present day such matter would be instantly devoured, or absorbed, which
    would not have been the case before living creatures were formed.” See:
    Darwin F. ed. (1887) The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin. Vol. 3, John
    Murray, London, pp. 168–169.

  10. Botta O, Bada JL. (2002) Extraterrestrial organic compounds in meteorites.
    Surveys in Geophysics. 23: 411–467.

  11. Cooper G, Kimmich N, Belisle W, et al. (2001) Carbonaceous meteorites
    as a source of sugar-related organic compounds for the early Earth. Nature
    414: 879–883.

  12. Martins Z, Botta O, Fogel ML, et al. (2008) Extraterrestrial nucleobases in
    the Murchison meteorite. Earth and Planetary Sci Lett 270: 130–136.

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