Earth origin, concepts

At the end of the eighteenth century, the average density of the Earth as a whole was already known to be twice that of the common cmst rocks. The original concept of an iron core was purely based on meteoritic observations. Stony meteorites provide the clue that iron is more abundant in accretion materials than in the Earth s mantle (Cox, 1989). A serious proposal of an iron core was not presented until the recognition of the two main classes of meteorites, stony and iron meteorites, in the mid-nineteenth century. The iron meteorites had been assumed to come from the core of a fragmented planet. The idea of an iron core was generally accepted once Oldham (1906) confirmed the presence of a core. 

Paradoxically Vernadsky s original concept of the biosphere is not actually known in the West. Some of his important works became only recently available in English and German (Vernadsky, 1997 Vernadsky, 1997 Vernadsky,, 1998). His main work,, Jhe Chemical Structure of the Earth and its Environmenf which he called the book of my life", has not yet been translated into German or English. In Russia, the scientific heritage of Vernadsky is well known. But even today, more then 50 years after Vernadsky s death, his scientific heritage is actively discussed. New interpretations of the important aspects of his biosphere theory continue to appear. 

The concept that all substances are composed of elements and atoms goes back at least 2000 years. Originally, only four elements were recognized air, earth, fire, and water. Each substance was thought to consist of very small particles, called atoms, that could not be subdivided any further. This early mental concept of the nature of matter was extremely prescient, considering there were no experimental results to indicate that matter should be so and none to verify that it was so. Modern atomic theory is much more rigorously based, and we even have the ability to see atoms with special tunneling microscopes. All of chemistry is based on how atoms react with each other. 

Our mission is to explore the molecular universe with an understanding of all of the local molecular environments and constrain possible chemical reactions using the concepts of physical chemistry. With such a wide brief we need a focus and I have chosen the origins of life on Earth and on all planets - astrobiology. 

The recent developments and ideas in the field of prebiotic chemistry can be combined with the concepts noted here to produce what we regard as a research outline, rather than a detailed hypothesis, directed toward a coherent theory of the origin of complex self-contained, self-replicating chiral assemblies. In what follows we present one possible scenario that is consistent with our current knowledge of chiral induction and amplification and with the nature of early Earth as well as early life. It is exciting that this fundamental question can be formulated in a way that allows systematic experimental testing as we enter the next century. 

Early in his life he left his children such a large inheritance that his son Karl was able to pursue his studies of chemistry in 1878 in Vienna with Professor lAjeSaen and in 1880 with Bunsen in Heidelberg without material worries. In the laboratory of Bunsen he was first introduced into the chemistry of the rare earth elements. Uhtil his death in 1929 he remained true to this field of work. The intensive involvement in spectroscopy with Bunsen also made him familiar with the problems of radiant li t v ch without doiibt was important for his later invention of Auer-Li t and with that the use of the rare earth elements. Further, he had an insight into the work of winning the rare earth metals from their salts through Bunsen, Hill rand and Norton A)o succeeded for the first time in 1875 to produce rare ecu h metals by electrolysis vhich later was further developed in Munich by Muthmann. Ihe concepts "pyrophor" and "pyrophoricity" originate from Auer von Welsbach. 

What we see in the early eighteenth century is the gradual transition of matrix as womb first into earth, and then into base, as Roulle used it at mid-century. Some illustration of this follow and illustrate the origin of the concept of base from the Renaissance concept of matrix. 

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