ULTIMATE COMPUTING - Quantum Consciousness Studies

Origin and Evolution of Life 49
conviction by proposing an alternative evolutionary continuum from the
beginning of the material cosmos to the first organisms. In their “egg before
chicken” view the sequence of life’s organization was from interstellar gases, to
amino acids, to polymers, to organized microsystems. As evidence they cite the
self organization of amino acids and proteins into “proteinoid” microspheres
which can establish communication links and perform other “life-like” functions.
Evidence for a “chicken before egg” view has been found by chemist Leslie Orgel
and colleagues (Schwarz and Orgel,1985) of the Salk Institute in La Jolla,
California. They recently discovered a 15 nucleotide long DNA-like molecule that
had formed spontaneously from much simpler carbon compounds and zinc in the
absence of living cells or protein enzymes. Other work has suggested that RNA
can function enzymatically to facilitate reactions and the bulk of recent findings
leans towards the primacy of nucleic acids.
Manfred Eigen (1971) views this cause/effect problem as a “closed loop”
whose original starting point is unimportant. What is important, in Eigen’s view,
is how molecular self-organization occurs from random events and feedback
which lead to macroscopic functional organization, self-reproduction, selection,
and evolution: “hypercyles.” Eventually, according to Eigen, such systems can
escape the prerequisites of their origin and change the environment to their own
advantage.
A view of primary nucleic acid (chicken) organization in a primordial
aqueous environment (soup) is summarized and elaborated in the writings of
biologist Lynn Margulis and Dorion Sagan (1986). They view as logical the facts
that RNA and DNA spontaneously formed in the shallow seas of early earth and
also became able to self replicate perfect copies of themselves. They liken RNA
molecules to half of an open zipper. With the proper complementary ingredients,
the missing half forms by using the existing RNA as a template.
Margulis and Sagan (1986) note:
An RNA molecule can do more than copy itself. The sequence of its
nucleotides can also serve as a signal for a neighboring strand of
RNA to attach the amino acids in its environment, thus forming a
portion of a protein which will in turn accelerate the matching of
other RNA molecules producing more RNA, more protein like
fragments, and so on.
This suggests that at a critical level of evolution, nonlinear accelerations
occurred due to the level of associative inter-relationships among evolving
molecules. This can help explain how biological systems can produce “order from
chaos,” and thus apparently violate the second law of thermodynamics which
states that ordered systems must dissipate towards disorder.
Margulis and Sagan describe the following scenario for the development of
life on earth. RNA formation in the primordial soup led to the evolution of double
stranded DNA eons later. This in turn allowed the full variety of life-as manifest
in the richness of structures and functions of proteins and other macromolecules.
Survivability was enhanced by enclosure of dynamic molecules inside
membranes, apparently formed when phospholipid hydrocarbons aligned and,
because they were charged on one end, formed spherical droplets which
sequestered biomolecules. With the advent of ion channels and other membrane
proteins came regulatory voltages and a discrete microcosm: the “prokaryotic”
bacterial cell.