The origins of research into the origins of life

Endeavour

Volumn 30, Issue 1, 2006, Pages 24-28

  Fry, Iris ^a  

^a TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY   (Israel)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

SOCIAL ASPECTS;

IDEOLOGICAL COMMITMENTS;

PROFESSIONAL ASPECTS;

ART; BIOCHEMISTRY; BIOGENESIS; HISTORY; HUMAN; LIFE; MEDICAL RESEARCH; REVIEW; RUSSIAN FEDERATION; UNITED KINGDOM;

BIOCHEMISTRY; BIOGENESIS; BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH; GREAT BRITAIN; HISTORY, 19TH CENTURY; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HUMANS; LIFE; PORTRAITS; RUSSIA;

EID: 33645031496     PISSN: 01609327     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.endeavour.2005.12.002     Document Type: Review

References (34)

1. Oparin and Haldane met for the first time in 1963, at the Second International Conference on the Origin of Life that was held in Wakulla Springs, FL, USA. For details on this see Fox, W.S., ed. (1965) The Origins of Pebiological Systems: Proceedings of a Conference Conducted at Wakulla Springs, Florida on 27-30 October 1963, Academic Press (New York, NY, USA), p. xv and p. 98
2. For an overview of these historical developments see Fry, I. (2000) The Emergence of Life on Earth: A Historical and Scientific Overview, Rutgers University Press (New Brunswick, NJ, USA)
3. Oparin, A.I. (1967) The Origin of Life (Synge, A., trans.). In Bernal, J.D. The Origin of Life, pp. 199-234 (Appendix I), Weidenfeld and Nicolson (London, UK), p. 203. This was the first time Oparin's 1924 pamphlet was published in English
4. Kamminga, H. (1982), Life from space - a history of panspermia. Vistas in Astronomy 26, pp. 67-86
5. Oparin, A.I. (1967), p. 206 (footnote)
6. In his The Origin of Life, Haldane suggested that ultraviolet rays could have easily penetrated the oxygen-deficient atmosphere owing to the absence of an ozone layer. Haldane, J.B.S. (1967) The Origin of Life. In Bernal, J.D. The Origin of Life, pp. 242-249 (Appendix II), Weidenfeld and Nicolson. The 1929 paper was originally published in Rationalist Annual, 3-10
7. Haldane, J.B.S. (1967), p. 246
8. Oparin's The Origin of Life on Earth, published in 1936, was translated into English by Sergius Morgulis as Oparin, A.I. (1938) The Origin of Life, Macmillan (New York, NY, USA). It was this translation that was read by Harold Urey prior to the Miller-Urey experiment, reaffirming his views on the reducing nature of the primordial atmosphere; Urey, H.C. (1952) On the early chemical history of the Earth and the origin of life. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 38, pp. 351-363. The 1938 translation was reprinted in 1953 as Oparin, A.I. (1953) The Origin of Life, Dover Publications Inc. (New York, NY, USA). Meanwhile Oparin had revised his original book and published a second edition of it in Russia in 1941. This new edition was translated into English by Ann Synge and published as Oparin, A.I. (1957) The Origin of Life on the Earth, Academic Press (New York, NY, USA). Both the 1953 and the 1957 editions were widely read by scientists in the West
9. Kohler, E.R. (1973) The enzyme theory and the origin of biochemistry. Isis 64, pp. 181-196
10. Kohler, E.R. Isis (op. cit. p. 185)
11. Oparin, A.I. (1953), pp. 173-175
12. Oparin, A.I. (1968) Genesis and Evolutionary Development of Life (Maas, E., trans.), Academic Press
13. See Graham, L.R. (1987) Science, Philosophy and Human Behavior in the Soviet Union, Columbia University Press (New York, NY, USA), pp. 72-73. Furthermore, in his entry on Oparin in the Dictionary of Scientific Biography, historian Mark B. Adams notes that 'in the early 1920s many tracts were published [in the Soviet Union] as part of the government's campaign to support materialism and undermine religion, and popular pamphlets on Darwinism, human evolution, and experimental biology abounded.'
14. Adams, M.B. (1990) Oparin, Alexandr Ivanovich. In Dictionary of Scientific Biography (Vol. 18, supplement II) (Holmes F.L., ed.-in-chief), pp. 695-700, Charles Scribner's Sons (New York, NY, USA)
15. See Adams, M.B. (1990), pp. 698-699; and Muller. H.J. (1966) The gene material as the initiator and the organizing basis of life. American Naturalist 100, pp. 493-517
16. Muller. H.J. American Naturalist (op. cit. p. 494)
17. Graham, L.R. (1987), pp. 71, pp. 82-83, p. 90 and p. 101
18. Haldane, J.B.S. (1967)
19. Ibid., p.247
20. Podolsky, S. (1996) The role of the virus in origin-of-life theorizing. Journal of the History of Biology 29, pp. 79-126
21. Podolsky, S. Journal of the History of Biology (op. cit. p. 94)
22. Haldane joined the Communist Party in 1936, soon after the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War, and was chairman of the editorial board of the party organ, the Daily Worker. As noted by Podolsky, in the 1930s 'many left-intellectual scientists both politically advocated socialism or Marxism and epistemologically advocated dialectical materialism.' Podolsky, S. (1996), p. 107 (note 104)
23. See Graham, L.R. (1987), pp. 72-73; and Podolsky, S. (1996), pp. 79-126
24. Oparin, A.I. (1961) Life: Its Nature, Origin and Development, Academic Press, p. 5
25. Muller. H.J. (1966), p. 494
26. Troland, L.T. (1914) The chemical origin and regulation of life. Monist 24, pp. 92-133
27. Troland, L.T. Monist (op. cit. p. 92 and p. 102)
28. Troland, L.T. (1917) Biological enigmas and the theory of enzyme action. American Naturalist 51, pp. 321-350
29. Troland, L.T. American Naturalist (op. cit. p. 342)
30. Muller, H. (1929) The Gene as the Basis of Life. In Proceedings of the International Congress of Plant Sciences (Duggar, B.M., ed.), pp. 917-918, George Banta (Menasha, WI, USA)
31. Gilbert, W. (1986). The RNA world. Nature 319, p. 618
32. See Dawkins, R. (1978) The Selfish Gene, Oxford University Press (Oxford, UK), p. 16;
33. and Dawkins, R. (1986) The Blind Watchmaker, Penguin Books (London, UK), pp. 140-163
34. Since Troland's time, evaluations of the 'tine window' during which life could have emerged have changed considerably. In the 1950s and 1960s scientists thought it could span billions of years, but in recent years it has undergone a dramatic narrowing. See, Fry, I. (2000), pp. 123-126; and Troland, L.T. (1914)