The evolution and sustenance of life

Short Communication

ISSN: 2475 3432

The Evolution and Sustenance of Life

Michael Deans^*
Freelance scientist, M.A. Cambridge, London, United Kingdom

Corresponding author: Michael Deans, Freelance scientist, M.A. Cambridge, London, United Kingdom. Tel: +44 (0)2089956525, E-mail: michaeltdeans@gmail.com

Citation: Michael Deans (2017), The Evolution and Sustenance of Life. Int J Biotech & Bioeng. 3:1, 16-29. DOI: 10.25141/2475-3432-2017-1.0016

Copyright: ©2017 Michael Deans. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Received Date: February 7, 2017; Accepted Date: February 14, 2017; Published Date: February 28, 2017

Abstract:

A silica helium thermometer immersed in liquid nitrogen gave unexpected readings. My proposal that ice crystallizing on it had undergone a phase transition allowing for water molecules’ irregular shape was recently corroborated by reports of ice XIc. Being electrets, they align below a critical temperature to form ferroelectric ice. Early Earth’s polar icecaps were sufficiently cold for its formation and fluctuating temperatures caused the phase transition.

ATP’s phosphate bonds absorb the infrared light released, its wavelength can be estimated It reached tropical waters after multiple reflection, there deoxynucleotides absorbed it. Dynamic equilibrium replenished the stock as they polymerized to form DNA. After billions of years the oceans turned to DNA noodle soup. Analogues of the transfer RNAs involved in protein synthesis, ’transport DNAs’, were included. They formed hydrogen-bond-lined pores through coacervate proto-cell membranes.

The same laser light powered the active transport of substrates matching their outer rims. The internal concentrate fostered synthetic reactions. Replicate tDNAs emerging from the resulting order from chaos, signified the origin of life. Chromosomal DNA masks the ~2,000 in every human cell governing metabolism, they’re still undetected. Reported rings of DNA particles around where sperm entered ovum evidence their existence.

All biochemical systems follow the laws tDNAs established, their primitive needs must be satisfied for life to persist. Differentiation DNAs selecting from 64 varieties of tDNA determine cell diet, equivalent to messenger RNAs selecting from 64 types of tRNA for later evolving protein synthesis. Amino acids formed primitive proteins which neutralized DNA’s acidity.
The energy kinase enzymes release replaces that from ice XIc. For muscle contraction, sarcomeres contract to form ½-wave resonant cavities. For photosynthesis, grana form cavities resonating with sunlight, extract phosphodiester bond energy. Oscillating H-bond chains flanking minion tunnels accelerate protons, releasing γ-rays when they fuse with obstructive nuclei.

Twenty-one asymmetric anti-parallel β-sheet protein hairpins binding nine base-pairs form a ring; more hairpins bind nine rings together completing a minion. This complex packs chromosomes more neatly than nucleosome core particles. Minions also serve as chips in the brain and biological clocks, their base-9 logic and time unit limit human intelligence. Binary computers always answer yes or no and embrace 0 and ∞ but human thinking is biased and limited.

Minion logic predicted nine metabolic pathways replace the tangle of enzyme-catalyzed reactions. The active transport of water is most significant, controlling it promises to end pandemic heart attacks, strokes and cancers of tissues specializing in waterpumping: breast, colon, prostate and cervix. Before supplementing selenium to prevent these maladies, public ignorance, scientific skepticism and religious disbelief need be addressed.

Providing all essential trace elements, economical use of resources and wise counsel promise to improve health, welfare and longevity. Future artificial intelligence modelled on minions will think laterally and improve diplomacy and matchmaking. Power supplied by trapping the γ-rays from molecular-scale fusion reactors modelled on them would reduce pollution and resolve climate change.

Everyone will benefit, as Newton said ‘If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants’. Scientists testing and implementing my proposals could restore the simplicity science enjoyed when queen Victoria reigned and increase public trust in it. Government defense expenditure should be redirected to conservation, crime prevention and peaceful coexistence.

Fig 1:

As a Cambridge undergraduate in 1967, I conducted an experiment confirming the Clausius-Clapeyron relation. A silica helium thermometer immersed in liquid nitrogen gave anomalous readings. I suggested a proton-ordered variant of ice Ic crystallizing on its surface had deformed it. Sixteen ice structures are now known, recent reports of a phase transition in ice XIc1 corroborate my proposal. All records of the observations made on that occasion were lost or destroyed. Examining laboratory records or anyone who might remember the episode after half a century could cause offence. Ice XIc is reputed to crystallize extremely slowly but Fig 1 includes sufficient information to replicate my observations.

Fig 2:

Water’s a fascinating molecule, all sixteen types of ice accord with Laue’s classification and obey the ice rule˗˗˗˗each tetrahedral water molecule hydrogen bonds with four neighbors˗˗˗˗creating the beautiful shapes of snow-flakes. Linus Pauling showed the entropy of ice Ih persists on cooling to 0 K3. Life may either be treated as a collection of entities or as a process. My argument presumes the pre-existence of a dilute solution of atoms and ends describing how life assembles them˗˗˗˗it’s circular. Lightning maintained dynamic equilibrium in the primordial soup before intra-cellular metabolism evolved. Life’s essential prerequisites are an energy source matching H- and Pi ~ Pi -bonds and its products accumulating for eons,

Alexander Oparin2 proposed life began in primitive cells he called coacervates. Miller and Urey simulated lightning in a primordial atmosphere containing methane and ammonia, it yielded chemicals including amino acids. Cairns-Smith proposed clay surfaces afforded an interface for molecules to congregate. Evaporation concentrates chemicals in puddles and hot

hydrothermal vents promote chemical reactions but they’re isolated and temporary. RNA world advocates propose ribosomes arose spontaneously, RNA being a better catalyst than DNA, they ignore the need for substrate concentration. Panspermia doesn’t address the question of its origin. Protein synthesis is a complex process unlikely to emerge spontaneously. Creationists calculate probabilities and demand in vitro proof.

The observed surface temperatures at Mercury’s poles and on the moons of Jupiter5 are consistent with pools of liquid nitrogen forming on Earth’s poles during a primordial ice age. Snow, rain and hail fell into them and crystallized as ice XIc. Its cubic structure resembles diamond, H-bonds are individually weak but strong when aligned. Temperature fluctuations drove its phase transition at 72 K6, accommodating the irregular tetrahedral shape of water molecules. The water molecules are aligned electrets, making it ferroelectric so their coordinated rearrangement releases latent energy as infrared laser light, ice-light with wavelength λ ≈ 4 μ.

When λ ~ 4 μ laser light was used to de-ice aircraft wings, it was reflected. Reflection by ice in clouds and on Earth’s surface like Marconi’s trans-Atlantic radio signals transmitted polarized laser light from ice XIc to Darwin’s warm tropical waters. In the oxygen-free atmosphere they coexisted with extremely low polar temperatures. It’s now known they contained deoxyribonucleic acids7 (DNA’s greater stability than RNA8 favors it as life’s precursor and RNA doesn’t form minions). Ice-light matches both phosphodiester, Pi ~ Pi and hydrogen, H-bond energy. Its polarization restricted its absorption to one enantiomer, polymerization formed a chiral DNA noodle soup, life’s emergence on Earth was inevitable. Substrate concentration is prerequisite to metabolism – order emerged from chaos.

Life started when nucleotides polymerizing within coacervates replicated transport DNAs, tDNAs (tRNA analogues). Their requirements determine life’s atomic alphabet and a molecular vocabulary of carrier-substrate complexes underlying all biological systems and the inviolable rules of active transport. Until photosynthesis took over, a tDNA feeding protons to nicotinamide created our oxygenated atmosphere and fixed nitrogen, fostering amino acid synthesis. Protein synthesis and enzyme catalysis evolved later. Now, kinase and cyclase enzymes replace ice-light, they release life’s energy currency from ATP’s phosphodiester bonds as λ ~ 4 μ light. Barrels of α-helices opening and closing complement sixty-four yet undetected tDNA variants. On some alien planet with a different climate, another natural laser source energizing other chemicals might create a parallel life-form.

Minion structure and function:

DNA uncoils, retaining B-helical spacing and overlap and binds to anti-parallel β-pleated sheet hairpin proteins with alternate neutral alanine, leucine, isoleucine or valine and basic lysine or arginine residues, an asymmetric proline U-bend creates a ~17º angle between adjacent units. Twenty-one nine-base-pair units form a coil, (readily degrading to a nucleosome core particle). More protein hairpins bind nine coils together, forming a minion (connoting mind and subservience). Histone analyses are consistent with their amino acid content. The Dphenyl-alanine residues of bacterial protein Gramicidin S are analogous to DNA bases, Fig 3.

Minion architecture involves three sets of H-bonds: between DNA bases, across β-pleated sheets and connecting ω-amines to phosphates. Amino acids A, L, I and V binding to bases Cytosine, Guanine, Adenine and Thymine conserve critical DNA sequences, mnemonic A LIVe CiGAreTte. Pairs of small interfering RNAs, siRNAs bind palindromic DNA sequences, affording another analogous structure. Super-coiled minion stacks pack chromosomes better than nucleosome core particles. They replicate 1,701 base pairs without uncoiling and recoiling, helicase enzymes can introduce errors. One proton ordered H-bond between R and K ω-amines and DNA phosphates is reversed for electrical neutrality.

Fig 3:

τ = 3 * 189 * 7.37 * 10-10/3 * 108 ≈ 1.39 * 10-15 sec

where 3 reflects Dekatron™ logic9, 189 base-pairs per coil, 7.37 Ẵ is β-sheet spacing and 3 * 108 is the velocity of light.

τ limits our perception; 63N τ, N = 1 to 18, calculates coil periods, N = 11, 13 and 18 predict day-length, Sun-spot cycle period and the age of the universe10 respectively. Zero, times < τ or > 6318 τ and infinity are unreal. Minions are coiled abaci with eighteen 63-bead rungs, counting from 1 to 6318 (2.4 * 1032). An infants’ first breath burns a reference datum on all its minions, determining their personality, all neurological, psychiatric, philosophical and astrological types are embraced, Table 1.

Table 1. `Qualities associated with minion coils`

Qualities vary with frequency range, ± correspond to introvert & extravert personalities, periods = 63N τ, colors feature in metaphors, masses are in ratio 632, me/mp = electron/proton masses, substituting μ = √M for M makes E = Mc2 symmetric: E = μ2c2, * connotes approximation.

Inter-coil comparisons correspond to ratios and percentages, justifying our use of exponents and logarithms11. The H-bond settings of ω-amine-Pi bonds store an 18-character word using a 64-character alphabet. Minions serve as chips in the brain, they span eighteen frequency bands, 103-octaves and the electromagnetic spectrum, a greater range than neural networks. As Piet Hein wrote: Things Take Time, untargeted evolution has taken human intelligence beyond silicon chip technology. The 1.8 M minions in any human cell nucleus could remember the Bible, Koran and Shakespeare’s works. Copies are distributed throughout the brain like a holograph so memories can survive brain damage.

Integrating neurologists’, psychiatrists’ and philosophers’ personality classifications suggested nine personality traits: goodness, truth, beauty, peace, love, progress, stability, justice and unity. The gold, bronze and silver caskets corresponding to truth, love and justice in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice prompted an investigation of the psychology of color, those used by political parties, in national flags and metaphors contributed. Academics’ personalities reflect characteristics typifying their interests. Negative and positive traits correspond to introversion and extroversion respectively.

Our fingers, ears, tongues, eyes and noses encode touch, taste, hearing, sight and smell inputs. The way synesthetes substitute senses suggested adding instinct, belief, aesthetics and joy to the physical senses. Evidence for minions’ bases 9 and 63 includes:
  • Gray’s Anatomy uses 9 colors for brain regions
  • The musical stave’s 5 lines and 4 spaces
  • The QWERTY keyboard’s 26 upper/lower-case alphabet + 10 digits + space
  • The history of calendars: 7 days/week despite Napoleon trying to impose 10
  • 60 for time keeping
  • The ancients introducing zero for base-10 arithmetic is compatible

We translate experiences into essays, pictures and symphonies; libraries, galleries and concerts exhibit them, they reflect the characters of their authors, whose masterpieces date from one of nine seven-year periods:

1. 0-7 infants are good, 63-72 retirees enter 2nd childhood
2. 7-14 children learn truth, 72-81 oldies resume education
3. 14-21 teens enjoy beauty, 81-88 pensioners are content
4. 21-28 adults respect ethics, 88-91 elders impart wisdom
5. 28-35 parents conform, dotage, 91-98 revives memories
6. 35-42 workers advance their careers
7. 42-49 in middle age, they invest savings
8. 49-56 citizens advise and publish
9. 56-63 leaders govern

Thought transference between coils explains the lateral thinking underlying creativity, it’s equivalent to transposing keys in music. Minions play chords corresponding to their stored word, others storing similar words either locally or connected by nerve fibers resonate, ring a bell for memory recall. Axons and dendrites are equivalent to optic cables, they serve as wave-guides, distributing signals throughout the brain

The neural network model doesn’t explain the recovery of childhood events in old age, partial matches suggest compromise, we learn from our mistakes. The synaptic junctions in differentiated brain regions act as filters deploying different neuro-transmitters. Most activity involves repeating established behavior, new ideas arise during sleep, enabling adaptation to survive change. Turing12 envisioned computers emulating human thinking, asking: Can machines think … play the..imitation game?

AI with base-9 hard- or soft-ware modelled on minions promises to satisfy his criteria to:
• Forge diplomatic peace treaties
• Enable scientists to cross disciplinary boundaries
• Help matchmakers find partners
• Facilitate medical diagnosis
• Teach gamblers to distinguish cardinal from ordinal numbers

s, p, π electron orbitals and ─, =, ≡, … chemical bonds usurped the simplicity of Michael Faraday’s positively charged electric particles. Plato’s perfect solids inspired a set of nine polyhedrons in Fig 4. Nested, they predict the chemistry of the elements in Mendeleev’s periodic table13. Oscillating H-bonds between K/R ω-amines and DNA Pi accelerate protons along tunnels, T with sufficient energy to fuse with obstructing nuclides:

½ pm (c/189)2 ≈ 13,000 eV

where proton mass, pm = 1.67 * 10-27 kg.

Fig 4:

Human’s ~1028 minions, ~30 Mt of chromatin suffice to replenish the H, C, N, O, S and P on which life depends. Surprisingly, the ½-lives and wavelengths of γ-rays emitted by 12CO2, 13CO2, 14NO2, 15NO2, 12CH4, 13CH4, 14NH4 and 15NH4 recoiling from the carbon-nitrogen cycle correlate with those of pulsars14. Blake’s What immortal hand or eye dare frame thy fearful symmetry?15 inspired the Tyger equation, a hyperbolic function allowing for wrap-around counting ‘errors’  = 1 in 6318 and β = 1 in 639, it compensates for our distorted perception of a light beam’s path.

The Tyger equation predicts γ-rays follow a boomerang-like path and DNA diffracts them at source. It’s as counter-intuitive as the quantum mechanics it replaces. When Michelson and Morley measured the speed of light, the omnipotence of science was challenged. Heisenberg’s uncertainty16, Einstein’s relativity17 and Lemaître’s big bang cosmology18 fill gaps. Using particle accelerators, telescopes and rockets to test them diverts research funds from humanitarian projects.

The relativity between perception and conception only affects particle physics and cosmology. The conundrums arising from new physics can be resolved by substituting τ for Planck’s constant19, replacing plane surfaces with spheres and treating time as imaginary. They’re simpler than quantum mechanics and account for Einstein’s spooky action at a distance, Earth’s curvature and gravitation. Verifying the minion structure could restore public confidence in science.

Tanks of bacteria performing molecular scale nuclear fusion emit γ-rays, trapping them could generate clean energy to resolve global warming. Water films on palladium crystals20, neutron emissions from electric storms and collapsing bubbles also conduct cold fusion. Scientists and engineers must abandon the searches for fundamental particles, alien life and quantum computers and engage in this venture. My proposals make many correct predictions but my logic needs reappraisal.

Homo sapiens, the wise man, built pyramids and other symmetrical religious monuments at great expense, Karl Marks’ Religion is the opium of the people invited religious tolerance, free speech and human rights. Astrological cycles correlate with those of minions, explaining the recurrent realization of prophecy. Sharing a common origin, all biological clocks are in synchrony, accounting for telepathy. They’re in phase, contradicting Heisenberg’s uncertainty. The Western and Chinese zodiacs and ~2000-year astrological Great Ages are consistent with minion logic and provide a framework for understanding history.

Calculations:

Using these parameters and coordinates of water molecules in ices Ic and XIc:

The energy released by the ferroelectric transition may be estimated:

Summing gave Σ E ≈ 22.3 kJ/Mol, approximately that of the Pi ~ Pi bond in ATP.

Its wavelength:

λ = h * c * N / Σ E =6.63* 10−34* 3* 108* 6.02* 1023/2.23* 104=5.37*

differs from the 4  which has made many verified predictions, my logic needs reappraisal11.

Trace element nutrition:

Transfer RNAs are the smallest active nucleic acid moieties, suggesting the first bio-active molecules were transport DNAs, tDNAs, tRNA analogues lining pores through Oparin’s coacervate proto-cell membranes with hydrogen bonds. Flashes of lightning polarized the H-bonds, creating membrane potential. Substrates matching their outer rims combined with carriers to form ionic complexes. Now adenyl-/guanyl-cyclase, replaces 4 μ infrared from ice-light, depolarizing them and the net electric field propels them through more efficiently than barrels of α-helical proteins opening and closing. The mechanism could be verified using zeolite and Buckminster-fullerene molecular cages.

Nucleotide transport enabled local tDNA replication, multiple pumps afforded a balanced diet including amino acids. tDNAs control nine independent metabolic pathways today predating protein synthesis: motility, sensitivity, excretion, respiration, growth, skeleton and tooth maintenance, assimilation, reproduction and blood pressure. The elements involved constitute life’s atomic alphabet, the substrate complexes transported its molecular vocabulary, their chemistry its grammar. Concentration is prerequisite to chemical reactions synthesizing all life’s components. Table 2 shows the elements essential, toxic and unused by biological systems.

Differentiation DNAs, dDNAs recruit tDNAs, determining cell diet, analogous to messenger RNAs selecting transfer RNAs for protein synthesis. At cell division, tDNAs feeding from blastocysts and gastrocysts are starved of nutrients and overheat. Guanyl replaces adenyl cyclase, synthesizing hook proteins, determinants of tissue architecture. 1 hook pairs gametes, 2, 3, and 4 hooks form spirogyra, sponges and simple worms respectively; 5 hooks suffice to build all natural forms, 6 allow tumors and cancers to grow. 1-hook immune cells bind to the extra hook, preventing their proliferation.

The trace elements magnesium, calcium, manganese, iodine, copper, fluorine, zinc, silver and selenium are often deficient in modern diets. Religious taboos, food processing, fertilizers, weed killers and pesticides, SOx/NOx air pollution, mercury poisoning, pharmaceutical waste and water purification reduce their availability. Government support for supplementing them would prevent or treat common mental and physical disorders. Food labelling, sell-by dates, organic farming, vegan diets, five a day, high fibre, avoiding saturated fat, eating oily fish and eschewing genetically modified crops distract attention from simple basic principles. Patient support groups for inherited disorders recommend dietary restrictions for their management when mineral supplementation or drugs targeting tDNAs would be more effective.

Initially, veterinary experience and the non-Mendelian inheritance of familial metabolic disorders guided my investigations. Clues emerged from traditional herbal remedies and drug side-effects. Trace elements’ roles as enzyme cofactors often mask those as carrier components. Studies of siRNA hairpins support my proposals. Endocrinology and medicine can be better understood using trace element metabolism. Mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation and Krebs cycle release ice-light energy, it’s passed down the cytochrome chain, a cascade of porphyrin ringmetal ion complexes.

The notion that oxidants destroy free radicals is discredited. The following accounts highlight resonant cavities convert chemical to mechanical energy and conjugated single/double bonds, (-C-C=C-) n transferring energy as solitons.

Motility:

Biological systems deploy resonant cavities to couple chemical with mechanical energy and conjugated (-C─C=C-)n bonds conduct energy as solitons21, Fig 5. Sulfur from glutathione is oxidized to sulfite, carrier for calcium/magnesium exchange. ATP’s phosphodiester bonds have the same energy as ice-light, Mg controls their hydrolysis. Sarcomeres of striated muscle contract to form ½-wave cavities resonating with the ~4 μ infrared released, avoiding the thermodynamic inefficiency of Huxley’s model22. For sustained muscle contraction, silver exchanges creatine for creatinine phosphate, replenishing ATP.

Fig 5:

Oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria commensurate with ~4 μ store the infrared they generate until the cytochrome chain converts it to chemical energy. Chloroplast grana absorb light wavelengths matching their dimensions for photosynthesis. Centrioles’ nine peripheral rods also afford such cavities, spindle fibres’ three α-helices provide nine conjugated bond paths. The energy they transmit drives proton currents round chromosomes’ minion coils, rendering them alternating electromagnets. Resonance between chromosomes of equal length creates an alternating electric force causing their mutual repulsion at cell division.

Sensitivity:

Nerves transmit pain, catecholamines [nor-]adrenaline and dopamine form four- and six-member rings around Na+ and K+ ions at synaptic junctions. They exchange sodium for potassium and change cell charge, enabling the passage of signals between minions. Morphine and codeine substitution creates larger complexes, they block tDNAs and prevent pain transmission. Pain sensitivity increases when more are recruited to compensate, accounting for addiction. LDopa counteracts Parkinson’s disease. Na+ ions have the same shape and size as H2O and form such large hydrates as Na+.28H2O, rendering the cell sap viscous and reducing metabolic rate. K+ ions bind less water, substituting them for Na+ speeds reactions, explaining the reflex fight or flight response.

Excretion:

Manganese forms chlorides: MnCl3−, MnCl4= and MnCl64−, the tetra-chloride excretes salt in urine, sweat and tears, controlling ionic strength. Angiotensin delivers Mn, aldosterone, rennin, histamine and aspirin interact. Red blood cells transporting carbon dioxide to the lungs for excretion control pH. Zinc is cofactor for carbonic anhydrase, it catalyses the chloride shift, exchanging bicarbonate for chloride:
CO2 + H2O ↔ HCO3- + H+

Respiration:

Breathing exchanges carbon dioxide for oxygen, distributed bound to haemoglobin in red blood cells, O2 can’t diffuse through membranes. Thyroid glands load thyroxine with iodine, Fig 6, a proton displaces iodonium, I+ at target tissues. Iodonium carries oxygen hydrate, O2.H2O, decaying to iodide for recycling. Oxygen transport protects littoral seaweeds from tidal O2 fluctuations, their purple and yellow colours match those of I+ and I-.

tDNAs deliver protons to the amide/hydroxy groups of nicotinamide in NAD[P], bonding with nitrogen, oxygen, nitric oxide and ethylene, they drive parallel reactions:
  • Hydrogen is released whilst fixing nitrogen23; more efficient than the Haber process, genetically modified bacteria could reduce pollution.
   • Photolysis of water accounts for atmospheric oxygen24
   • Nitric oxide controls vasodilation
   • Cyanide and carbon monoxide poisoning

Fig 6:

Iodine deficiency causes goitre, water accompanying iodine accumulating in the eyes exopthalmos. Bipolar disorder arises from mutant tDNAs disrupting nerve cell oxygenation, mania and depression correspond to excess and deficient oxygen respectively. Lithium, diagonally related to iodine in the periodic table, stabilizes the condition. One in seven sibs inherits it, this non-Mendelian inheritance explains the seventh son of a seventh son myth.

Growth:

The Biuret test illustrates peptide bonds’ high affinity for copper. tRNAs transfer amino acid complexes through the endoplasmic reticulum to ribosomes for protein synthesis, analogous to tDNA substrate transport through cell membranes. A cascade of hormones amplifies a single molecular signal, alerting all body cells: hypothalamic hormones stimulate anterior pituitary Cu distribution, they promote endocrine hormone production and it drives protein synthesis. Failures cause gigantism, dwarfism and acromegaly.

Differentiation DNAs binding tDNAs controls tissues’ specialist functions, nuclear DNA is unchanged. At cell division, tDNAs feeding from gastrula and blastula are starved of nutrients and overheat. Guanyl cyclase replaces adenyl-cyclase, synthesizing hook proteins binding daughter cells together, Table 3. The Five hook theorem, 3D equivalent of the Four color mapping theorem needs proof.

Stem cells have all dDNAs and tDNAs, synthetic replacements could create monsters, A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Cu IUDs inhibit sperm glucose uptake, preventing them reaching ova, Cu accumulation in the eye causes Wilson’s disease. Cu supplements and bracelets may ameliorate arthritis. Amino acids from protein digestion pass to the liver for inter-conversion, ensuring the brain receives a balanced mixture.

Fig 7:

Rigidity:

Fluorspar, blue John is very stable, illustrating Ca’s strong affinity for fluorine, Fig 7. Silicon hexafluoride carries calcium phosphate, aka [fluor-]apatite. Both parathyroid and thyroid glands incorporate halides to hormones, they may have coevolved. Para-thyroid hormone is secreted continuously, preventing F- accumulation. Vitamin D stores ~265 nm UV sunlight matching Si ~ F energy and retinal transfers it as solitons:

SiO2 + 6 F- + 4 H+ + UV-light → SiF6= + 2 H2O

Failure of this pH-sensitive reaction arising from acidity in kidney failure or menopause causes osteoporosis. Replacing F- with OH- in apatite hardens tooth enamel and fluoridation of water supplies counters childhood tooth decay (mottled teeth result from excessive exposure). Tea drinking typically supplies adequate F-.

Acid air pollution (SOx/NOx) entering leaves via stomata prevents SiO2 production, leading to leaf-fall25. Liming the soil proved ineffective, delaying diesel exhaust regulation. SOx/NOx also promotes inappropriate SiF6= synthesis in the nasal fossa, it’s passed along the olfactory nerves to the brain. There, breakdown releases F- and deposits alumino-silicate plaques. F- inhibits Krebs cycle, killing cells and disrupts protein folding as nascent proteins pass through tDNAs, creating β-amyloid and -protein tangles. Aluminium hexafluoride is excreted and F- cleared from the brain four days after fluorinated anaesthetic administration. Alzheimer’s Disease26 symptoms are relieved until disintegrating nerve cells release more F-. Reducing acid air pollution or F--containing pharmaceuticals might manage dementia.

Similar tangles in Prion diseases27, result from mutant tRNAs misinterpreting mRNA sequences and incorporating the wrong amino acids to proteins; embedded mutant tRNAs render them infectious. Genetically engineered tRNAs and tDNAs might prevent their inheritance.

Assimilation:

Zinc binds to the triangle of sweetness28 found in β-Dglucose, vitamin C derivative 2-keto- Lgulonate, barbiturates, insulin and glucagon. Glucose transport using Zn as carrier maintains animal blood and plant xylem/phloem sugar concentrations, controlling carbohydrate metabolism. Pavlov noted his dog lapping up diabetics’ urine. Pancreatic β-cells incorporate Zn to insulin, anticipating, tasting or smelling food promotes its secretion; Lgulonate takes Zn where insulin can’t reach. Pancreatic α-cells secrete glucagon, recycling Zn and disabling glucose transport. Banting, Best and Hodgkin won Nobel prizes for elucidating insulin’s function and structure.

Vitamin C or Zn deficiency caused scurvy affecting sailors’ skin, digits and gonads until limes high in vitamin C prevented it. Zn incorporates hydroxy-proline to connective tissue protein collagen. The zinc sulphide in Calamine™ lotion performs the same function. The vitamin C supplements Linus Pauling29 advocated prevent importing rhinoviruses causing colds and flu, Zn blocks nasal tDNAs. Since Zn is cofactor for alcohol dehydrogenase, consuming alcohol and taking barbiturates divert it to the liver, the reduced glucose supply to the brain causes inebriety, attention to Zn might manage alcoholism. Cu coil contraceptives inhibiting sperm glucose uptake prevent them reaching their target.17

When adult hemoglobin replaces fetal, Zn conjugates glucose to bilirubin for excretion causing neonatal jaundice, bilirubin reaching the brain can cause seizures. Zn in colostrum30 affords natural protection, sucking a midwife’s pewter spoon was traditionally effective, blue-blooded families’ silver spoons were useless. The many types of diabetes arise from defects in this pathway, an implanted Zn monitor linked to an artificial pancreas might improve its management. Diabetics suffer from glaucoma when Zn accumulates in the vitreous humor of their eyes. Sugar excreted in urine causes kidney infections poor peripheral circulation loss of fingers and toes.

Reproduction:

The pineal gland distributes silver in 6-member serotonin and melatonin rings like those catecholamines form around potassium. Porphyrins, Fig 8 supply nature’s colors:
• Magnesium porphyrin the green of chlorophyll
• Iron porphyrin the red of hemoglobin in erythrocytes
• Silver porphyrin the pink of leaf buds
they inter-convert light and chemical energy. Vitamin D absorbs UV light, energizing silver porphyrin31, retinal transfers it as solitons by retinal, converting phosphate to pyrophosphate. PPi is less polarized than Pi, it’s transported bound to arginine as PPi. Arg. This complex provides the atomic ingredients (24H, 12C, 11O, 8N and 2P) to replicate DNA at cell division.

Anti-cancer drugs mimic PPi.Arg, before the advent of antibiotics, Ag was widely used in medicine, it might control resistant pathogens. In animal trials, Ag colloid was effective against cancers; they can develop when its deficient. Ag repairs tissues and sister hormone melatonin regulates sleep. Phosphate has independent roles in energetics, DNA synthesis and skeletal maintenance are independent.

Water pumping:

Peter Mitchell’s chemiosmosis32 presumes water diffuses freely through unit membranes, regards them as semi-permeable and proposes they equilibrate differences in osmotic pressure. Exchanging three sodium for two potassium ions maintains membrane potential. The active transport of water is essential. Mevalonate, residue of saturated fat breakdown, is named after the herb Valerian, it was formerly known as all heal. Water is transported by a tDNA exchanging mevalonate-5-phosphate for mevalono-lactone-5-phosphate.

The posterior pituitary gland packs hormones oxytocin and vasopressin with selenium. Vitamin E, α-tocopherol conveys energy as solitons, it oxidizes Se to SeO3=, carrier exchanging Ca++ for Mn++. Mn is cofactor for enzymes converting mevalonate to cholesterol, essentially a byproduct of this process,
it’s feedstock for steroid hormone synthesis. Factors controlling blood pressure, Fig 8.
1. Inherited tDNA mutants
2. Saturated fat consumption
3. HLA and LPA cholesterol transporters
4. Manganese nutrition
5. Exercise affecting calcium levels
6. Sulphur competes with Se
7. Methyl mercury competes with dimethyl Se33
8. Se deficiency
Sedimentary rocks incorporate Se from fossilized early life. Plate tectonic subduction introduced them to igneous deposits. Breast cancer distribution correlates with surface geology34,35. Drinking hard water from limestone and water percolating through volcanic rocks provides most Se. Sea floor manganese nodules may date from primordial life. Animal husbandry36 evidences Se dependency; Se supplements prevent cattle getting hypertension in pregnancy, protect sheep grazing pasture treated with super-phosphate against white muscle disease and pigs en route to market succumbing to heart failure. European royal families’ Se-rich diets may explain their longevity.

Pandemic Se deficiency explains deaths from heart attacks, strokes, cancers of tissues specializing in water pumping: breast, bowel, cervix and prostate and pre-eclampsia. Its causes include:
• Precipitation during water purification37
• Agriculture using Se-deficient soils
• High temperature food preparation and preservation38
• Insufficient dietary Se
• Foods rich in Se are expensive

Acknowledgements:

Apart from correspondents’ occasional suggestions for revisions this is all my own work. See also my thesis, Some biochemical consequences of a consistent framework for the origin of life11, FQXi essay and Science Uncoiled (Melrose Press, available in English and Chinese).