Mechanical Energy before Chemical Energy at the Origins of Life?

Helen Greenwood Hansma

doi:10.3390/sci1020050

Abstract

Forces and mechanical energy are prevalent in living cells. This may be because forces and mechanical energy preceded chemical energy at life’s origins. Mechanical energy is more readily available in non-living systems than the various other forms of energy used by living systems. Two possible prebiotic environments that might have provided mechanical energy are hot pools that experience wet/dry cycles and mica sheets as they move, open and shut, as heat pumps or in response to water movements.

Highlights

Greenwood HansmaThis paper is in honor of my distinguished colleague David Deamer and his 80th birthday
Forces and mechanical energy are prominent in living systems, at all size scales, from the molecular to the cellular and beyond [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20]
Perhaps mechanical energy in living cells is a remnant of mechanical energy that brought life into being, before chemical energy was readily available

Summary

Greenwood Hansma

This paper is in honor of my distinguished colleague David Deamer and his 80th birthday. Transducing Membranes from a joint United States-Australia conference held in Hawaii in

Introduction

Results and Discussion

Conclusion