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Published on: November 17, 2012
Field-Control, Phase-Transitions, and Life's Emergence.
Gargi Mitra-Delmotte1, A N Mitra
1Independent Researcher, St.Denis Reunion, France.
Frontiers in Physiology
|October 13, 2012
Summary
Life
Area of Science:
- Origin of life studies
- Non-equilibrium thermodynamics
- Soft-matter physics
Background:
- Self-organized criticality (SOC) is observed across biological organization levels.
- A paradox exists in how early simple organics could dissipate energy for ordering.
- Existing complex biomolecules possess "soft-matter" properties absent in early organics.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose a mechanism for life's origins linking macroscopic dynamics to statistical mechanics.
- To explore the role of a "soft magnetic scaffold" in bootstrapping life's emergence.
- To investigate how inorganic scaffolds could facilitate controlled energy dissipation and ordering.
Main Methods:
- Theoretical modeling of a field-controlled inorganic scaffold.
- Analysis of super-paramagnetic colloidal components and their dynamics.
- Investigating energy dissipation mechanisms and time-reversal symmetry breaking.
Main Results:
- A field-controlled magnetic scaffold can break time-reversal symmetry through energy dissipation.
- Mutual coupling between inorganic scaffolds and organic molecules can generate long-range correlations.
- Cooperative adjustments in the inorganic network facilitate functional configuration selection.
Conclusions:
- A "soft magnetic scaffold" offers a bottom-up assembly with top-down control mechanism for life's origins.
- Non-equilibrium dynamics and phase-transitions driven by inorganic-organic interactions are proposed.
- This framework suggests a pathway for the emergence of ordered systems from simple precursors.
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