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ECOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY, 13(4), 315–327
Copyright © 2001, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc
...
Iberall
Retired Scholar, UCLA

This article illustrates the possible application of homeokinetics to the constructive
process of the origin of life
...
The full story of emergence necessarily begins with
cosmology, which eventually results in an earth that can support geological processes,
which form the matrix for life
...
However, physics also has very useful insights to share
...

Actually, four topics—physics, chemistry, geology, and biology—are part of a
continuum that flows from physical processes and from the way humans process information
...
This new age of science led to the development of chemistry, geology, and
biology
...
The coupling
of ideas from these disparate fields led to an age of mechanism and machinery, and
to an industrial revolution for engineering processes—civil (physical), mechanical,
Requests for reprints should be sent to Arthur S
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E-mail: aiberall@uci
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Geological ideas coupled with biology when scientists
were trying to understand fossils
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By the 1950s it was obvious that all these processes
were eminently physical and chemical (Cloud, 1970)
...

This enumeration typically begins with defining the end product (an origin to life)
and then gathering into a coherent description all the competing, neutral, and cooperating processes
...

The chronology of the current epoch starts at zero from the Big Bang
...
At about one-millionth second, protons
and neutrons and their antiparticles formed by quark combination, annihilated
with their antiparticles leaving behind in the universe a very small excess of protons and neutrons that represent our matter—protons, neutrons, neutrinos,
antineutrinos, electrons and positrons, photons, and the decoupled gravitons
...
At about 14 sec, electrons and
positrons annihilated into photons, leaving behind the small number excess of
electrons and the same number of protons
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The universe at the beginning was then a plasma of protons, alpha particles, and electrons, with about 100
million photons per proton and the decoupled gravitons and neutrons
...

At 300,000 years, the recombination era began
...
Electrons and protons, which were driven apart from
each other because of their high thermal kinetic energy, lost enough of that energy
and cooled off, so that they began to “recombine” and include the alpha particles to
form neutral hydrogen and helium
...
At
about 2 to 5 billion years ago (Gya) after the Big Bang, galaxies, clusters, and
first-generation stars were formed
...
The reader is asked to accept the apparent in-

ORIGIN OF LIFE

317

version of language
...

Some of the bigger stars proceeded through a shorter nucleosynthetic life before
exploding as supernova, scattering the heavier elements beyond helium
...
Within this chronology, the second generation (of a Population I) star, our Sun, started up at about 5 Gya as one of billions of
isolate stars appearing in the rotating arms of our spiral galaxy (therefore not a
unique process)
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There are also dust clouds containing solid particles of nuclear species
...
From
these processes, the terrestrial planets were the next to form
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55 to 4
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CHEMICAL COSMOLOGY
The chemical composition has been studied for each of these phases (Saxena, 1986;
Shu, 1982)
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Very minor concentrations of radioactive elements are
present but are generally not indefinitely stable
...
The 20th-century universal cosmology substituted instead
around 100 distinct nuclear atomic species
...
While this first article is responsible for the physics of life’s originating
processes, to be followed by a second article responsible for the chemistry, it cannot
avoid presenting some reasonable tentative ideas about chemical processes
...
Indeed, all five major earth systems, the geophysical, the hydrological, the meteorological, the geochemical, and the biochemical, interact to create self-replicating living systems
(Soodak & Iberall, 1978)
...
Following Gutenberg (1959), Robertson,

318

IBERALL

Hays, and Knopoff (1972) provided a dynamic geophysics of the earth that incorporated plate tectonics as the major driving force
...
Contemporaneously, Vail and Mitchum (1979) were publishing on the global sea-level
changes for the past 600 million years or so
...

Some parts of our relevant articles, Iberall and Soodak (1987) and Iberall et al
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11), actually were written in the later 1970s
...
Leliwa-Kopystynski and Teisseyre (1984) and Teisseyre (1986)
fleshed out a rather complete internal planetary story for physicists
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g
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These data sets were useful for modeling a layered earth, both inside and outside
as far up to the region that the atmosphere becomes completely tenuous
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, 1993)
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EARTH CHEMISTRY
Assuming with certainty that our Sun is a second-generation physical star in the
galaxy, which is therefore not only hydrogen rich, but through prior neighboring
nova and supernova explosions, it has run through a sequence of nucleosynthetic
production processes and has been peppered in our galaxy to a cosmological abundance of other nuclei, particularly with some modest measure up through Fe (D
...
Assuming the “ansatz” (rule) that
(effectively) every available chemical species will be used for life’s chemistry in pro1
Tectonics relates to the deformation of the crust of the Earth’s surface
...
g
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The process of plate tectonics involves possible lateral movements
of the separate plates, possible vertical plate movements, and movements of one adjacent plate under the
other (“subduction”)
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, 1993)
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The upper mantle turns over on the order of 500 to 600 million years (My; that is, the Wilson Cycle time scale)
...

The solar gas compositional abundances are provided as 14 species in a
multielement system (Saxena & Eriksson, 1986)
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The
averaged gas compositional abundances (as atomic elemental abundance per Si
atom) are as follows: H (28,000), O (20), C (12), N (2
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07), Si (1
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88); S (0
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085); Ca (0
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059), Ni (0
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0038), and
Ti (0
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Contrast this with the upper mantle composition (D
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583), Mg (0
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158), Fe (0
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019), Ca (0
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0027), Cr (0
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0006), Mn (0
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00004)
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3), MgO (36
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8), Al2O3 (4
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3), Na2O (0
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46), S (0
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028) (Saxena & Eriksson, 1986)
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4), S (6
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0), and Ni (5
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To grasp the material phase limitations from a near
planetary surface atmosphere through all the near surface limitations, a very careful study has to be made of chapter 11 in Iberall et al
...

EARTH ATMOSPHERE
The chemical composition of the early atmosphere has been approached from several directions
...
Sato (as
cited in Robbins et al
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Today, the atmosphere (Standard Atmosphere, 1974) is composed (mole fraction percent) N2 (78
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9), Ar (0
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002), He (0
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0001),
H2 (0
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035), CH4 (0
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000004)
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The broadest comment
that deserves expression is that many more people have to investigate each of these
major heading issues, for they all are still in their infancy
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It is clear that no physical chemist can handle a strict theory
of a 14-element phase diagram
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SiO2 is so abundant that Si and SiO atoms and molecules need to be added to the list
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Add some
near pure Fe compounds, and Cu at atomic number 29 is about the upper limit for
required elements
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That is, they can either be electron donors or acceptors
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The elements CHON are sufficient for life
(Morowitz, 1973, 1987), and the more exotic catalysts based on P and S probably
were not that essential at the beginning of life’s operation
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, 1993)
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From his analysis, he noted that free radical reactions can dominate to
form lipids through ethane and toward amino acids through the reactants for the
Strecker synthesis: cyanide, ammonia, and an aldehyde
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However, now as a chemist, M
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PALEONTOLOGICAL RECORD
The paleontological record is the place to start looking for evidence that only six to
eight elements were involved with life’s origin
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Assuming that there is a physical foundation for the creation of sedimentary
rock materials on Earth at 3
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The association
with tidal water processes indicates surface temperatures as low as a few hundreds
of Kelvins
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9 billion years ago (Iberall
et al
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, 1993, chap
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It is important to recognize that almost as soon as the surface cooled, life began
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8 Gya, in
Isua Iron Formation rocks in West Greenland where Mojzsis et al
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LaBerge (1967) rightly pointed out that microscopic remains may well be widespread in cherts of banded iron formations, but that they
are generally so altered that most of their distinguishing features are lost and
therefore their use for correlation and relative age determination are limited
(Glaessner, 1970)
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5 Gya
in Warrawoona Formation rocks in Australia
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8 Ga
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These steps included the work
of Barghoorn (from the 1960s and earlier) who showed fossil remains encased in
the Gunflint chert, which had to have invaded a dead object as a fluid and turn into
a preserved solid that lasted for millions of years
...
Cloud (1965) deduced that the atmosphere had to change from
reducing to oxidizing with the precipitation of ferric iron in iron-formation
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Pflug (1978) discovered
potential microfossils in the Isua Iron-Formation
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Han and Runnegar
(1992) showed multicellular algae in the Negaunee Iron-Formation, thereby establishing at least in a beginning way that iron was the important “metallo” element
involved with organic compounds in eukaryote species
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8 Ga
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Woese (1987) rooted life from a
progenome that eventually produced the three extant kingdoms
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Astronomy, however, has added some insights
...
This led Iberall and Soodak (1987) to conjecture that the process of homogeneous catalysis of life probably took place within the early sedimentation beds 3
...
Shu (1982) helped to constrain the modeling and mechanism by which life
could appear using insights from astronomy
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Miller and Urey (Miller, 1953)
tested the chemical foundations for life by electrical discharge from lightning in a
closed environment with water and gas components
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The Eigen-Schuster modeling (Schuster, 1987)
suggested that polynucleotides are the most relevant examples of replication in biological systems
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This is the new
feature that is emerging in biology, the enormous structural variety of biopolymers
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Beilstein’s (1999)
Handbook of Organic Chemistry data set was useful as a large empirical selection
mechanism for isolating possible correct CxHyOz compounds rather than strict algorithmic rules
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At most he has to
consider perhaps 100 compounds
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(2000) that hot
springs such as around Santorini, Greece discharged gas through a sediment bed
...
Sato and Robbins (personal communication) experimented with aldehydes and found that acidification of certain forms
produced gunks
...

In a fractionating column, particularly run by gravity, a column is stacked with
“plates” or packed with resistive beds representing equivalent plate numbers
...
At some point down the column, side fractions are drawn off that represent rather pure components drawn off from the column with its changing flows
and temperatures and pressure and concentrations
...
” Many chemists have made gunks,
so that was not a complete surprise, but when Carothers went searching in that
gunk for a different near-pure chemically complex compound, he found nylon
...

The physical mechanism can be thought of as an antigravity machine, though not
literally; it is a buoyancy machine in which gas ingredients rise
...
They are CO, H2, and SO2, and possibly NH3
...
The bubbling
pours over like a fountain, providing a radial flow inward of defractionation, and
forms a rising gunk, which represents inwelling of polymeric ingredients that can
lead to or represent life
...
28 in Yates,
1987) to demonstrate periodically complex geochemical–biochemical subunits that
fulfil reactions that can produce catalysts for thermophilic-like cellular forms
...
Life’s origins
had to be volcanic in origin
...
It had to involve cycling among factory day
processes that involved sedimentary materials
...
Planetesimal infall on Mars is used to constrain life’s emergence on Earth to a
time frame after 3
...
It is also tied to the
first appearance of sedimentary rocks on Earth at 3
...
Exploration of those
rocks indicated putative evidence for biogenic forms (Robbins et al
...
, 1979)
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1 Gy period
...
It had to relate in some way to the chemistry of the earliest rocks in
West Greenland
...
g
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Robbins
and Harthill (in press) now suggest that cuprous–cupric pumping processes also
may serve or augment iron
...
Yet what process was first? The abundance of
iron-formation as the earliest rocks suggests iron pumping
...


SYNTHESIS
In the introduction, I used the term homeokinetic physics to represent the conceptual framework of this article
...
4 Gya (Kramers,
2001); these are detrital, meaning they were transported by water on a solid surface
...
4 and 3
...
Scherer, Munker, and Mezger (2001) used zircon data to suggest that Earth’s first persistent crust formed between 60 and 260 My after the condensation of the oldest solid matter in the solar
system (4
...
51 to 4
...
Therefore, “Earth appears to have emerged from this
Hadean era with liquid water and possible life already established on its surface” (Kramers, 2001)
...
There can be many structures
...
W
...

We can say,
Homeokinetics = Reductionism + Constructionism
...
Think of a factory for creating life in the bubbling springs of
Santorini or Santorini-like environments
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Either synthesis is possible, as it suits you
...
More examples are given in the Appendix
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One was Phil Anderson as
represented in his 1972 article in Science (P
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Anderson, 1972)
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Michael Turvey has stimulated and encouraged a welcome interest in homeokinetics within
the community of ecological psychology
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(1989)
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Oxford, England: Blackwell
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W
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More is different
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Beloussov, V
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Continents, development of
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5, pp
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Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica
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(1999, November)
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Clearinghouse for
Chemical Information Instructional Materials (CCIIM)
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(1990)
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Reviews of Modern Physics, 62,
43–112
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H
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In Encyclopedia Britannica (Vol
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Chicago: Encyclopedia Britannica
...
E
...
(1965)
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Science, 148, 27–35
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E
...
(Ed
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Adventures in earth history
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Dermott, S
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The origin of the solar system
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Glaessner, M
...
(1970)
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In P
...
Cloud, Jr
...
), Adventures in earth history (pp
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San Francisco: Freeman
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(1962)
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Dissertation Abstracts, 23, 2070
...
(1959)
...
New York: Academic
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-M
...
(1992)
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1-billion-year-old
Negaunee Iron-Formation
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Iberall, A
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Toward a general science of viable systems
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Iberall, A
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(1987)
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In F
...
Yates (Ed
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521–540)
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Iberall, A
...
(1969)
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Journal of Basic Engineering, 91, 290–294
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, & Soodak, H
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Physical basis for complex systems—Some propositions relating levels
of organization
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Iberall, A
...
, & White, D
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Foundations for social and biological evolution
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Jeanloz, R
...
(1986)
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In S
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Saxena (Ed
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275–309)
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Kramers, J
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The smile of the Cheshire cat
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LaBerge, G
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(1967)
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Geological Society America Bulletin, 78, 331–342
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, & Teisseyre, R
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(1984)
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New York:
Elsevier
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(1953)
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Science, 117,
528–529
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J
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, McKeegan, K
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, Harrison, T
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, Nutman, A
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, & Friend, C
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L
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Evidence for life on earth before 3,800 million years ago
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Morowitz, H
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The biological time scale
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Urquhart & F
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Yates (Eds
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New York: Plenum
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(1987)
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In F
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Yates (Ed
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New York: Plenum
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, Kostelnik, J
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, & Cody, G
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The origin of intermediary metabolism
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Orgel, L
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(1987)
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In F
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Yates (Ed
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65–74)
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Peebles, P
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Principles of physical cosmology
...

Pflug, H
...
Yeast-like microfossils detected in oldest sediments of Earth
...

Randall, J
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The making of the modern mind
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Reddish, V
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Stellar formation
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Robbins, E
...
, & Harthill, M
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Life in a copper province
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Selius (Ed
...

New York: Academic
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I
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, Hanert, H
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, Sato, M
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S
...
T
...

Volcanic hot springs as clues to the precipitation of Precambrian iron formation, origin of life, and
terraforming Mars
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19–20
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I
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L
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G
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A model for the biological precipitation of
Precambrian iron formation: B) Morphological evidence and modern analogs
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W
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Appel
& G
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LaBerge (Eds
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97–139)
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Robertson, E
...
, & Knopoff, L
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(1972)
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New York:
McGraw-Hill
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(1968)
...


326

IBERALL

Sato, M
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Thermochemistry of the formation of fossil fuels
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Sato, M
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I
...
S
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Thermochemistry of the origin of life and the optimal environment
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57)
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K
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(1986)
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New York: Springer-Verlag
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K
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(1986)
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In S
...

Saxena (Ed
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30–105)
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Scherer, E
...
, & Mezger, K
...
Calibration of the Lu-Hf clock
...

Schidlowski, M
...
U
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, Eichmann, R
...
E
...
Carbon isotope geochemistry of
the 3
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Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 43, 189–200
...
W
...
R
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Archean microfossils: New evidence of ancient microbes, Chap
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In J
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Schopf (Ed
...
214–239)
...

Schuster
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Self-organization of macromolecules
...
E
...
), Self-organizing systems: The
emergence of order (pp
...
New York: Plenum
...
(1982)
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Mill Valley, CA: University Science Books
...
(1987)
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In F
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Yates (Ed
...

17–31)
...

Soodak, H
...
S
...
Homeokinetics
...

Standard Atmosphere
...
In Handbook of chemistry and physics
...

Teisseyre, R
...
(1986)
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New York: Elsevier
...
, & Goodfield, J
...
The architecture of matter
...

Turcotte, D
...
(1978)
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Earth
Planetary Sciences Letters, 41, 341–346
...
, & Mitchum, R
...
Global cycles of relative changes in sea level from seismic stratigraphy
...

Waldrop, M
...
(1990)
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Science, 250, 1080
...
(1977)
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New York: Basic Books
...
(1975)
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Woese, C
...
Bacterial evolution
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Yates, F
...
(Ed
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Self-organizing systems
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APPENDIX
Examples of Constructions—H = R + C Systems
1a
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1b
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2a
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2b
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ORIGIN OF LIFE

327

2c
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3
...

4
...

5
...

6
...

7
...

8
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g
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9
...

10
...

11
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12
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13
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The novel constructionist step was that rather than trying to use
very short life high quality and expensive machine tool material to cut the very strong
glass fibers, because of their brittleness and fineness, they could be very easily cracked
by intermittent small advances across an inexpensive single edged razor blade
...
Boats are no longer made from
wood (fastened by nails or glue), nor from metal (by pouring within a surface mold)
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ERRATUM
In the article by John Pickering, “On Revising Assumptions,” Volume 13, Number
2, the last sentence of the second paragraph of the section “Neuropsychology Is Not
Dangerous” (p
...
”



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