Many scientists call the theory of biopoiesis one of the most modern hypotheses of the origin of life on Earth. This article will briefly review its essence, as well as provide information about the creator of this theory.
Problem history
How did life come about? This question worried people from ancient times. The oldest theories existing on this subject are creationist and the spontaneous generation hypothesis.
Divine Providence
According to people who adhere to this theory, living things arose on our planet due to the design of some higher mind. In different religions, this process is described in its own way, but the essence remains unchanged.
Life arose by itself
Such an assumption first appeared in the Middle Ages. Many scholars attribute his authorship to Galileo to Galileo.
This scientist, as well as some of his followers, said that living organisms are able to arise without any instructions from above. Only certain external conditions are required. Another famous Italian scholar of the Middle Ages even called several creatures, which, in his opinion, arise from nowhere. To such creatures he ranked mice and flies. The scientist said that both of these species appear during the decomposition of food products in poorly lit rooms.
It is not surprising that this theory has not passed the test of time. Later scientific discoveries completely broke all the main provisions of this hypothesis.
About the religious approach
As for creationist theory, it continues to exist today, and not only as a historical fact. Millions of believers believe the only correct point of view on the creation of life on planet Earth is a higher being. Christianity, for example, suggests that God created not only man and other living organisms, but also all of nature, as well as the Earth itself, along with the Sun and other cosmic objects.
This theory is not considered by biologists, but is studied only in the framework of research in the field of religion.
This is due to the fact that, according to official science, the fact that life on Earth appeared as a result of a creative act performed by God can neither be proved nor disproved. Therefore, the two theories that have been described above are not within the scope of interests of modern biologists.
Nevertheless, many, even the most prominent scholars, were deeply religious people. So, the point of view of biology, in their opinion, does not diverge from religious, in particular, Christian doctrine.
There is such an old joke on this score. After the Great October Revolution, Academician Pavlov is walking along Petrograd.
Passing by the church, he crossed himself. When the sailor saw this, he shook his head and said: “Oh, darkness, darkness.”
In essence, the religious creationist hypothesis does not contradict the theory of biopoiesis, which will be discussed below. But more on that later, since for a better understanding of the scientific concept, one should first of all consider those points of view on the origin of life that existed before it.
Revolutionary discoveries
The 19th century brought with it a fundamentally new perspective. Some biologists then began to share the belief that living matter can only come from a similar substance. Others claimed that if some cells are placed in favorable conditions, they can be transformed into substances such as hydrogen, protein, and others. And their presence, as you know, is an indispensable condition for the birth of life.
Those representatives of the scientific community who adhered to the point of view that life could not arise from inanimate life formed a direction that later became known as biologism, and their colleagues, who allowed such a transformation, began to classify themselves as supporters of abiologism. The second of these currents includes the theory of Bernal biopoiesis, which this article is devoted to.
At the end of the 19th century, the German researcher Miller, being one of the adherents of abiologism, set out to experimentally prove the validity of this theory.
Miller's Experience
The scientist, whose works are rightly called the predecessors of the theory of biopoiesis, constructed a device consisting of several flasks of various sizes, interconnected. After that, he pumped gases and chemicals into these interconnected vessels, which, in his opinion, made up the Earth’s atmosphere immediately after its formation. The scientist exposed the filled flasks to high temperatures, powerful electric discharges and radiation.
All this was supposed to be an imitation of primeval climatic conditions. In the first centuries of the Earth’s existence, high temperatures were obtained as a result of volcanic eruptions, electric discharges affected the atmosphere during lightning strikes, and radiation came from sunlight, which then did not encounter such an obstacle from them, as it is today.
The result of this experiment made a tremendous impression on the scientific community. In water mixed with gases and subjected to temperature, radiation and electrical effects, organic compounds appeared that are part of the protein and even RNA and DNA.
But along with the tremendous success that Miller achieved, his research was subjected to severe attacks. Its main opponents said that organic substances that were obtained in laboratory conditions could not exist for a long time in the nature of the prehistoric Earth. They would soon decompose and would not be able to form compounds that would become the basis for future living organisms.
Theory of Biopoiesis
In the late 40s of the twentieth century in England there was a new outbreak of interest in the abiological hypothesis. It was developed in the theory of biopoiesis of John Desmond Bernal. This British scientist developed a hypothetical concept that explains the mechanism by which inanimate matter is converted into living matter.
The most important concepts
For the best understanding of the essence of this hypothesis, it is necessary to understand what this researcher meant by wildlife. Such, in his opinion, can only be called those creatures that are able to reproduce, passing on to their offspring the most important information necessary for the existence and further development of the species. All these processes are impossible without the participation of proteins and a substance called DNA. The former, in turn, belong to a large class of organic substances, that is, those that necessarily contain hydrogen. At the dawn of our planet, there were no such matters on it. On Earth there were mountain landscapes, water bodies, an atmosphere (different from the present), but there were no living creatures.
Everything on the surface and in the bowels of the earth consisted of inorganic compounds. So it did not contain the elements of life. The same can be said in a different way: in the times in question, chemistry and geology already existed, but there was no biology yet, since its subject was missing - living organisms.
The creator of the theory of biopoiesis made an attempt to explain how organic matter originated. It is known that only those like themselves can breed them.
So, the author of the theory of biopoiesis made the assumption that the origin of life on a third planet from the Sun occurred in three stages. At the first stage, just like in Miller’s experiment, living matter formed from non-living matter from substances that were available on young Earth under the influence of electric current, high temperatures, radiation and other factors. The next main stage in the emergence of life, according to the theory of biopoiesis, is the appearance of complex substances, the so-called polymers, which are obtained as a result of simple interactions between themselves. This process has been going on for a rather long time.
Considering the facts for and against the theory of biopoiesis, you should first dwell on the first of them. As a rule, opponents say that a protein that was not formed under laboratory conditions would certainly begin to decompose very quickly. Advocates, however, suggest that this substance was very likely to enter the ocean. In this case, it would not perish, but mixed with others, it could become part of the polymers. Such an interaction would have even more effective consequences if the polymers were thrown out by the waters near one of the volcanoes. Such a neighborhood would provide the necessary heat for the development of substances.
Biopoiesis Theory: Evidence
The first stage of the origin of life was experimentally proved even before the existence of the theory itself. The essence of the research activities of a German scientist can be found in the article above.
Chemistry suggests that wildlife in all its modern diversity appeared only with the development of cells. This process is the third stage of biopoiesis.
A bit about the scientist
The creator of the theory of biopoiesis, which is briefly discussed in the article, John Desmond Bernal (1901-1971) is a scientist from the UK. For his many years of research in physics, chemistry and biology, he has been awarded numerous awards.
Also in 1953, Bernard received the International Stalin Prize for the fact that his cooperation with the institutions of different countries contributed to the strengthening of peace and friendly relations.
His mother was from America, and his father came from a family that emigrated to Britain from the Netherlands. The scientist's activity was not limited to the scientific fields listed above. He is also known for standing at the origins of creating a new discipline. It is called science of science and considers the interaction of various fields of knowledge, their development, impact on culture and so on.
Conclusion
Man has always been interested in the question of the appearance of life. Biopoiesis theory attempts to explain this phenomenon in its own way. Its essence was disclosed in the proposed article.