Re: Origin of life, thermodynamics

Pim van Meurs (entheta@eskimo.com)
Mon, 24 Mar 1997 19:56:52 -0700

Paul:
How is this so far? Any disagreements? Clarifications? Editorial
comments? I have actually been writing a piece to post in another
location, and so I would appreciate comments, especially from those
who are familiar with these concepts.

I see no real problems with your remarks other than that I am waiting to
see how this affects life ?
For instance one can have 'spontaneous' decrease in entropy and at far
equilibrium the decrease in entropy and increase in order can be shown to
be almost inevitable (Prigogine).
At the primordial earth we have 1) chemicals 2) energy (sun, lightning
etc). We do know from lab experiments that 'spontaneously' aminoacids can
form from simple building blocks under a variety of circumstances.
My question to you is, is this problem between life and thermodynamics
only for the origin of life or does it apply to life itself ?

Pim