entropy production and the origin of life熵产生和生命的起源.pdfVIP

Journal of Modern Physics, 2011, 2, 595-601 doi:10.4236/jmp.2011.226069 Published Online June 2011 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/jmp) Entropy Production and the Origin of Life Karo Michaelian Instituto de Física, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Cto. de la Investigación Científica, Cuidad Universitaria, Mexico City, Mexico E-mail : karo@fisica.unam.mx Received January 28, 2011; revised April 22, 2011; accepted April 25, 2011 Abstract All irreversible processes arise and persist to produce entropy. Entropy production is not incidental to such processes, but rather the very reason for their origin and persistence. Here we take such a thermodynamic perspective on the origin of life, recognizing that entropy production is not only the vital force of life, but the fundamental link between life in the biosphere today and its origin in the Archean. Today the greatest en- tropy production in the biosphere is due to visible photon absorption and dissipation into heat by organic material in liquid water and the subsequent degradation of the established heat gradient through the water cycle. Following this link back in time to the Archean environment leads to a suggestion for a mechanism for the origin of life based on UV photon absorption and dissipation by RNA and DNA. Keywords: Origin of Life, Entropy Production, RNA, DNA, Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics, UVTAR 1. Introduction tory. The difficulty has been to demonstrate self-replica- tion of RNA or DNA without the aid of the enzymes and In 1871, Charles Darwin in a private letter to his friend, the free energy containing molecules