Review article: Towards an evolutionary theory of the origin of life based on kinetics and thermodynamics
Excerpt: ‘Irreversibility and the kinetic power of reproduction seem to be, at least in principle, sufficient to allow the emergence of life and there is no need to seek out some hitherto unknown physical law to explain the origin of the specific behaviour associated with living organisms.”
My comment: Evolutionary theorists are likely to be the only people who think they can invent theories and define them to eliminate what is known by serious scientists about the requirement to link ecological variation and ecological adaptations via conserved molecular mechanisms in species from microbes to man. In the statement above, the authors eliminate the need to explain the origins of behavioral phenotypes as if the behaviors associated with nutrient acquisition and the nutrient-dependent physiology of reproduction were not required to support the life of a last universal common ancestor.
For comparison, serious scientists have addressed the possibility that our last universal common ancestor ‘evolved’ in the context of what is known about kinetics and thermodynamics.
“We cannot conceive of a global external factor that could cause, during this time, parallel evolution of amino acid compositions of proteins in 15 diverse taxa that represent all three domains of life and span a wide range of lifestyles and environments. Thus, currently, the most plausible hypothesis is that we are observing a universal, intrinsic trend that emerged before the last universal common ancestor of all extant organisms.” — A universal trend of amino acid gain and loss in protein evolution
If evolutionary theorists ever are willing to consider incorporating the Law of Physics, chemistry, and what is known about conserved molecular mechanisms, they will soon learn that there is no such thing as an ‘evolutionary event.’ Everything currently known by serious scientists about the origin of life clearly states that Genome Dynamics Events (GDE) are required.
Everything I have published attests to the fact GDE are biophysically-constrained by nutrient availability and controlled by the metabolism of nutrients to species-specific pheromones.
GDE is a confusing acronym. If GDE was put into the context of what is currently known about biologically-based cause and effect, the Genome Dynamics Events would simply be events that are epigenetically effected by olfactory/pheromonal input in species from microbes to man via conserved biophysically-constrained molecular mechanisms of cell type differentiation we detailed in our 1996 review: From Fertilization to Adult Sexual Behavior.
Abstract excerpt: “…we focus directly on molecular events themselves. Here the “environment” involved can be that within a DNA segment.”
If you are opposed to eliminating the Laws of Physics from the origin of life, see also:
Human pheromones and food odors: epigenetic influences on the socioaffective nature of evolved behaviors
Conclusion: “New data on how genetic predispositions are epigenetically linked to phenotypically distinct neuroanatomy and behaviors is provided in the honeybee model. Across-species comparisons from insects to vertebrates clearly show that the epigenetic influence of food odors and pheromones continues throughout the life of organisms that collectively survive whereas individuals do not. These comparisons also attest to the relative salience of sensory input from the rearing environment. For example, when viewed from the consistency of animal models and conditioned behaviors, food odors are obviously more important to food selection than is our visual perception of food. Animal models affirm that food odor makes food either appealing or unappealing. Animal models reaffirm that it is the pheromones of other animals that makes them either appealing or unappealing.”
