ORIGIN OF LIFE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 105, 30 October 1913, Page 11

ORIGIN OF LIFE

♦'FIRST ORGANIC STEP" SCIENTISTS IN- CONFERENCE. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, 20th September. A discussion of tho Origin of Life took place at the meeting of the British Association at Birmingham, when Professor B. Moore (Liverpool) gave the result of experiments carried out in conjunction with Mr. Arthur Webster. The title of the paper, which was accompanied by a demonstration was "Synthesis of Organic Matter of Colloids in Presence of Sunlight, Considered in Relation to the Origin of Life." Professor Moore said there were ln&ny chemists and biologists also who regarded the problem of the origin of life as useless to enquire into. They thought it Vwas insoluble, and oue which might be ! left to psychologists. (Laughter.) It seemed to him that "by such an attitude they lost a great deal, because they agreed to be ignorant on one of the most important problems of biology. He had for some time regarded that purely as an experimental problem, and he believed he would be able to demonstrate a step which connected the inorganic creation with the organic, and give them something more of that continuity aboul which tho president spoke in his opening address. It would be necessary for him in tracing the continuity to begin very early, and pa&s into a rather misty region. In case his audience might take wings perhaps he had better say he was going to remain with them on this planet, and would not carry his continuity into tho spirit worlds. (Laughter.). He would point out that it was an exceedingly practical problem. It was in the attempt to solve the problem and origin of life that the whole work of Pasteur and Lister arose. , USE OF SUNLIGHT. As a result of eighteen months' experimental work they had obtained evidence of the first organic step in the evolution. When dilute solutions of colloidal ferric hydroxide or the ' corresponding uranium compound were exposed to strong sunlight or the light of the mercury arc there were synthesised the same organic compounds which wore at present formed at the first stage in the process of the organic synthesis by a green plant, viz., formaldehyde and formic acid. If they considered tho plant exposed to the proper conditions of temperature and sunlight, tho chain of events could be followed, 'which not only could but must occur. At first as the j planet cooled down only elements would be present, at a lower temperature binary compounds formed; next simpkcryslalloidal salts arose. Then by the union of single molecules into groups ol fifty ov sixty, collodial aggregates appeared. As the latter increased in complexity they also became more delicately balanced in structure, and were easily destroyed by sudden changes of environment, but, within certain limits vveiu peculiarly sensitive to energy changes, and could take up energy iv one form and transform it into another^ That was the stage at which they took the matter up. In their work tjie labile colloids took up water and carbon dioxide, and utilising the sunlight streaming upon the plant produced, tho simplest organic structures. Then the latter, reacting with themselves and with nitrogenous, inorgahic matter, continued the process, and built up more and more complex and /more labile organic colloids, until," finally, these acquired the property of transforming light energy into chemical energy. From the first step in the organic synthesis advance must be made to study how more and more complex organic compounds could be evolved, but it' was clear that, by the continued action of the ' law of molecular complexity ' life must originate, that form of life were now originating, that the origin of life was no fortuitous accident, and that the same processes were guiding life onwards to a higher evolution in a progressive creation. WHY WE ARE HERE. Sir Oliver Lodge, who opened the discussicn, said he must be understood as expressing no biological opinion aa to the importance of anything demonstrated there. • The synthesis of practical compounds forming , inorganic material was, of course, nothing new. It was new in his youth as far as novelty was concerned. He gathered that it was the formation of formic acid by the aid of the sunlight. "What I would like to say is that I very much agree as to the fact that new possibilities enter the matter with the increase of science, the increase of complexity, even the increase or size." A meteorite or a body in the heavens of the size of the Isle of Man op of Europe' could not possibly have an atmosphere, and could not, he presumed, be a seat of life such as we know it. [ Even the moon was hardly big enough 1 to have an atmosphere, or, at all events, a decent atmosphere. The earth was juat big enough to hold oxygen by its gravitative attraction. Except for that and its size it could not hold oxygen; we could not be here, though wo" might be elsewhere. (Laughter.) . The sun was so big that it could hold hydrogen. Hydrogen made its way to tho sun. Furthermore, the great size of the sun made it hot. Its own gravitativo attraction • made it so vigorous that a pound there weighed a quarter of a hundredweight. The distances were so, largo that a gravitated shrinkage kept it at the high temperature at which it was. It was that which made it a source of energy and vitality on the planets around. That which took place "in astronomy took place also among the atoms, which ih l themselves were exhibiting some astronomical analogies. Complexity and instability were essential to tho operations of life. POTENTIAL LIVING MATTER. "By haying a molecule sufficiently complex and sufficiently unstable and supplied with tho energy of sunlight, j you have apparently," said Sir Oliver, "the physical and chemical substratum for the operations of life. You have the potential living matter. Ido not say we have made that potential living matter yet. , That will be a great achievement, and I have not much doubt that it may be done." But if they called that the origin of life,, he thought they would not bo using the phrase in an accurate or scientific manner. The origin of potential living matter was what really many peoi^le were working at with great ingenuity and perseverance.; but if they got potential matter that was not what ho regarded as life. He regarded Jifo as something not of that order, but of a higher and different order. "I do not think the universe is limited to that which we know, nor .limited to' chemistry and physics. Life, whatevei it is — I do not know what it is — inrvkps uso of potential Jiving niat&er when provided, and f should H*y it is provided by parent,!; zuui passed on. But it may be; provided m tbo laboratory, and utilised by sunlight, but that would 'not be the origin of life. It would merely bo? th«* construction of a physical am, chemical vehicle that could be mudo uso o)".' 1 (Cheers.) Prafey-er Armstrong said that Professor ) Schafor had enormously underrated tho j difficulties from the chemist's point of

He spoke of tho experiments as revealing nothing new. What was said to have been done by sunlight had been done .before by magnesium. Ho attacked tho idea of making use of colloids. i It was a blessed word among physiologists, but it was like so many blessed words ; it was used to obscure and wrap up ignorance,