Jagged Environment
The stress of oxygen - antioxidants
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Jagged EnvironmentThe stress of oxygen - antioxidants |
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Mass extinctions |
Introduction of oxygen from geologic sources provided a source of damage to the primitive, and vulnerable, hydrocarbon (oil) membranes. This can be a disaster and breach the membrane entirely, or the damage may be selective, and merely modify only a few oil molecules. Oxidation of hydrocarbons, ironically, leads to antioxidants which protect the remainder of the membrane from further oxygen damage. Incorporation of extraneous oxidised hydrocarbon molecules to the membrane would provide an additional protection. That such antioxidants could be exchanged between cells is a perfect example of the advantage of co-operativity inherent to the formation of collectively organised cell-arrangements (“co-operative matrix”). In isolation, cells do not have this advantage, and are more at risk of their membranes being breached. In later stages of evolution, only those cells which had adapted in this way could survive in a highly oxygen enriched environment. Antioxidants are fundamental to the origins of life itself, and caused evolution to take place. This is in stark contrast to the prevailing scientific notion that an oxygen-free atmosphere was required, only under which the basis of organic life could have been approached, and is a fault of the prevailing reasoning that Life arose at the surface of the Earth. This is wrong. Life arose within the deeper clays of the Earth and indeed a low oxygen concentration was vital in the early evolution of the primitive hydrocarbon membranes. As percolating through the clay mass, the aqueous phase (the “blood”) enabled the intercommunication of the clay-cells, and of the supply of nutrient molecules and the removal of waste products. Organic molecules beyond the complexity of simple hydrocarbons, the amino-acids, porphyrins and simple bases, which are ultimately found in DNA, are formed from simple molecules of methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3) and water (H2O), under geothermal conditions. These would have been washed into the “blood” and so carried to the primitive clay-cells. Copyright © 2001 Chris James Last updated 12 March, 2005 |
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