Bootstrapping the Energy Flow in the Beginning of Life |
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Authors: | R Hengeveld M A Fedonkin |
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Institution: | (1) Institute of Ecological Science, Vrije Universiteit, De Boelelaan 1087, Amsterdam, HV, 1081, The Netherlands;(2) Department of Ecology and Environment, Alterra, P.O. Box 47, Wageningen, AA, 6700, The Netherlands;(3) Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia |
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Abstract: | This paper suggests that the energy flow on which all living structures depend only started up slowly, the low-energy, initial
phase starting up a second, slightly more energetic phase, and so on. In this way, the build up of the energy flow follows
a bootstrapping process similar to that found in the development of computers, the first generation making possible the calculations
necessary for constructing the second one, etc. In the biogenetic upstart of an energy flow, non-metals in the lower periods
of the Periodic Table of Elements would have constituted the most primitive systems, their operation being enhanced and later
supplanted by elements in the higher periods that demand more energy. This bootstrapping process would put the development
of the metabolisms based on the second period elements carbon, nitrogen and oxygen at the end of the evolutionary process
rather than at, or even before, the biogenetic event. |
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Keywords: | Origin of life Biogenesi Thermodynamics Inorganic chemical elements Redox reactions Periodic table Electronegativity |
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