Abstract
Abstract. Understanding the thermodynamic function of life may shed light on its origin. Life, as are all irreversible processes, is contingent on entropy production. Entropy production is a measure of the rate of the tendency of Nature to explore available microstates. The most important irreversible process generating entropy in the biosphere and, thus, facilitating this exploration, is the absorption and transformation of sunlight into heat. Here we hypothesize that life began, and persists today, as a catalyst for the absorption and dissipation of sunlight on the surface of Archean seas. The resulting heat could then be efficiently harvested by other irreversible processes such as the water cycle, hurricanes, and ocean and wind currents. RNA and DNA are the most efficient of all known molecules for absorbing the intense ultraviolet light that penetrated the dense early atmosphere and are remarkably rapid in transforming this light into heat in the presence of liquid water. From this perspective, the origin and evolution of life, inseparable from water and the water cycle, can be understood as resulting from the natural thermodynamic imperative of increasing the entropy production of the Earth in its interaction with its solar environment. A mechanism is proposed for the reproduction of RNA and DNA without the need for enzymes, promoted instead through UV light dissipation and diurnal temperature cycling of the Archean sea-surface.
Highlights
27 years after the publication of “On the Origin of Species” (Darwin, 1859), Boltzmann (1974) recognized that the struggle for existence was not a struggle for raw material, neither for energy, but rather a struggle for entropy which became available through the dissipation of high energy photons to low energy ones through irreversible processes occurring within the biosphere
Michaelian high energy photons to low energy ones through irreversible processes occurring within the biosphere
Such irreversible processes are known as “dissipative structures” since, they exist at low entropy, they arise spontaneously to provide new pathways to a greater sampling of the enormous multitude of microstates that underlie Nature and, their formation increases the entropy of the Universe
Summary
Onsager (1931) has shown how diverse irreversible processes can couple in order to remove impediments to greater global entropy production (Morel and Fleck, 1989). It is plausible that life arose as a catalyst for absorbing sunlight at the surface of the shallow seas, dissipating it into heat and, thereby promoting still other irreversible processes such as the water cycle (evaporation/rain), and wind and ocean currents, all of which contribute to the entropy production of the biosphere (Peixoto et al, 1991; Kleidon 2009) This suggests a thermodynamic imperative for an origin of life which can be related to its thermodynamic function of entropy production (Michaelian, 2009, 2011). The theory presented here offers a consistent framework within which each of the above mentioned difficulties is alleviated It recognizes a non-equilibrium thermodynamic imperative for producing RNA and DNA, irrespective of the difficulty of producing these in the laboratory, due to the great entropy producing potential of these molecules given the initial conditions of the primitive Earth; a high flux of UV photons and a high sea-surface temperature. Considering these thermodynamic forces alleviates the difficulty with the abiogenic yields of the primary molecules of life but, at the same time, provides an UltraViolet and Temperature Assisted mechanism for Reproduction (UVTAR) of RNA and DNA, without the need for enzymes
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