Science Forums: Widdekind - Viewing Profile - Science Forums

According to the Law of Bio-Complexity, life evolves increasing complexity (forward in time). Ergo, early earth life was simpler (life devolves to decreasing complexity backwards in time). Now, the most complex non-biological (organic, carbon-based) chemistry, occurs in "bio-tars", black-brown organic goos, composed of carbonaceous compounds constantly chemically reacting (McFadden. Quantum Evolution). Given sufficient quantities of "goo", and sufficient time to chemically react, bio-tars become "Belsteins" (to quote Prof. Urey), i.e. they come to contain essentially every conceivable organic chemical (even if in trace amounts), indiscriminately interacting, via every conceivable organic chemical reaction (even if slowly) (Deamer. First Life). Ipso facto, bio-tar "reaction networks" grow over time, given sufficient quantities & times, e.g. "trillions of tons for millions of years", according to "combinatorial chemistry", e.g. B --> C --> A in the following figure:


A sufficiently robust reaction network would contain all bio-chemicals (e.g. 20 amino-acids, 5 nucleo-bases, etc.); and all bio-chemical reactions, i.e. all metabolic pathways.

Ergo, sufficiently "cooked" bio-tars contain "trace bio-chemistry", "mired" amidst myriad other non-biological organic chemistries ? So, as Genes patterned Proteins, which "Enzymes" catalyzed more-and-more, of the bio-chemical pathways, an entire "bio-chemical system" could "emerge" from amidst they myriad competing organic chemistries, gradually out-competing them, and gradually incorporating all the carbon in the bio-tar ? I.e. the robust reaction-network would "pare & prune down", until the "tangled web" streamlined into a "few major thoroughfares" (or, "a few major 'vines', amidst the 'tangled mass of ivy', grew thick & fat, whilst the others withered away") ? I.e. what we humans identify, as special, i.e. "biological", organic chemistry, is merely the "most successful" organic chemistry, to have occurred, upon our planet (the "Microsoft Monopoly" to have emerged from the "organic bio-tar marketplace"), having evolved self-catalyzing Enzymes, that accelerate bio-organic-chemistry, to occur, considerably more quickly, than non-catalyzed natural organic-chemistry ?

Ribosomes are molecularly massive structures, composed of 3 RNA strands, cradled in a cluster of 56 proteins. Those 3 RNA strands (16S + 5S,23S), and their corresponding complimentary anti-strands (16S + 5S,23S), code for what poly-peptides, i.e. would generate what proteins, if "fed" to other ribosomes ?

Biomedical animator Drew Barry states that mosquitoes are normally vegetarians, and only pregnant female mosquitoes drink blood; and only for "special nutrients". Perhaps people could construct "mosquito feeders", that "smelled like animals", and contained said special nutrients, so that the mosquitoes would be attracted to the bait, over actual people ?

I understand, that a "glass" is an amorphous semi-solid, whose molecular monomers have not self-assembled, into an ordered crystalline structure. A "glass" is a kinetically locked, rapidly cooled state, wherein the material was "flash frozen" before it could self-assemble, into an ordered, structured, crystalline, solid state. I.e. in contrast to the amorphous liquid state, wherein the molecular monomers "stick & slip"; in an amorphous semi-solid glass, the molecular monomers "stick & grip" or "stick & lock".

For example, glass is (essentially) amorphous semi-solid silicon dioxide (SiO₂) (chemically identical to carbon dioxide (CO₂), but much more massive, which is why the former is a solid ("sand"), whilst the latter is a gas, at terrestrial S.T.P.). And, the crystalline structured solid form of SiO₂, i.e. quartz crystal, is an ultimately-lower energy state, than the amorphous semi-solid form, i.e. glass.

Therefore, given sufficient time, e.g. geologic 'deep time', would not glass slowly solidify, into quartz crystal ? Would not small regions become aligned, and 'nucleate' the crystallization process, reminiscent of 'zone growth' in ferromagnets, albeit ultra-slowly ? And so, if quartz crystal is a common constituent, of continental crust, on earth today; then would not those crystals have derived, from amorphous glasses, billions of years ago, on the early earth ?

Also, if quartz is the most common constituent, of planetary crusts, then could not fiber-glass be generatable, in situ, from "ground up regolith", on any rocky world, e.g. moon, mars ? Could "concrete & fiber-glass" help build habitats, on other worlds, or remote regions of earth ?



Were anyone willing to delve into the details, I suspect, that there is some connection, between glass formation, and latent heat of fusion. I.e. a glass is a "flash-frozen" super-cooled melt, in a non-crystalline amorphous state, below its melt/freeze transition temperature T_m; and, even below its colder glass transition temperature T_g < T_m; but, above its theoretical Kauzmann temperature T_k < T_g < T_m, at which the "entropy", i.e. internal energy, of the super-cooled, flash-frozen "glass" would reduce to the value, of the true solid state. I suspect, that all of that entropy, i.e. internal energy, difference, corresponds to the latent-heat-of-fusion, released during solidification / crystallization, under "normal" conditions. If so, then the glass state would truly be transitory, although the transition, from amorphous liquid, to crystalline solid, could take ages & aeons, for some materials. For example, when water freezes to form ice, it would, then, briefly transition through a "glassy" state.

I understand, that, unlike in an amorphous liquid state, in an amorphous semi-solid glass state, covalent bonds do form, albeit "haphazardly". The stronger the bonding affinities, of the molecular monomers, in the initial liquid-phase "melt", the higher the glass transition temperature T_g ----> T_m. Conversely, non-interacting monomers would never "vitrify", i.e. become glassy, T_g ----> T_k. Naively, I intuit, that a "glass" is a possible condition, of a super-cooled liquid, which "should be solid", but hasn't given up (all) of its internal energy, i.e. latent heat of fusion, and so retains a liquid-like amorphous unstructuredness.

On other, colder, worlds, could dry ice, i.e. solid CO₂, exist in glassy, as well as crystalline, (semi-)solid forms ?

If gravity is a fictitious (pseudo) force, cp. centrifugal & Coriolis forces; then how could 'gravity' be exerted, through force-ful interactions, via boson exchanges, i.e. 'gravitons', any more than there are 'centrifugal-ons' or 'Coriolis-ons' ? The only actual forces, mediated by bosons, are the S,W,EM, of the Standard Model ? If so, why would quantum gravity be any other, than "solving the Schrodinger equation on a curved coordinate grid-mesh" ?