Holmes hypothesis

The question of the elimination of water in polycondensation reactions still provides an unsolved problem. Solutions are being searched for in many laboratories, for example in Italy Paly6 and Zucchi from the University of Modena consider it possible that limited regions where liquid or supercritical CO2 phases were present could have existed on the young Earth. Such regions, with non-aqueous media, could have been particularly favourable for some prebiotic reactions, such as those involving the elimination of water. Experiments to study this hypothesis are planned (Paly6 and Zucchi, 2002 Holm and Andersson, 1998). 

Independently, there was the discovery in 1979 of the richness of organic compounds in hydrothermal hot vents (see for example Holm et al., 1992, and Chapter 3). The idea was fully developed by Wachtershauser (1988) and Cairns-Smith et al. (1992), and (of course) became another world. Life then began with the reduction of CO2 and N2 coupled with the reducing power of pyrite formation - and so was born the iron-sulfur-world hypothesis. Thus, the work of Wachtershauser also represents a link between the field of surface catalysis and the field of hydrothermal vents. 

Holmes, K. C. (1997). The swinging lever-arm hypothesis of muscle contraction. Curr. Biol. 7, R112-R118. 

An observation by Holmes [30] seemed to confirm Hantzsch s hypothesis Holmes demonstrated by thermal analysis the existence of the moleculM compound... 

Fig. 40.2 Indirect influence of ammonia on the metabolism of branched-chain amino acids (so-called ammonia hypothesis) (according to E. Holm, 1986) (BCAA = branched-chain amino acids, BCKA = branched-chain keto acids)...

Second, collect the available information by listening to the stories of the events. Holmes always arrived at a series of explanations that could have led to the crime by use of deduction or hypothesis generation. 

The hypothesis that phenoxy herbicides are a cause of soft tissue sarcoma (STS) also commenced in Sweden. Three case-control studies conducted by the same investigators reported relative risks of 3.3 to 5.7 for such an association (Table V) (42-44 ). However, as with malignant lymphoma, it is difficult to explain such dramatic risks associated with short term exposures. Moreover, Wiklund and Holm (45) found no overall risk increase from STS among Swedish agriculture and forestry workers (RR—0.9 95% Cl 0.8-1.0). 

In investigating an in-service failure, the analyst must consider a broad spectrinn of possibilities or reasons for its occurrence. Often a large number of factors must be understood in order to determine the cause of the original failure. The analyst is in the position of Sherlock Holmes attempting to solve a baffling case. Like the great detective, the analyst must carefully examine and evaluate all evidence available and prepare a hypothesis or a model of the chain of events that could have caused the crime. If the failure can be duplicated under controlled simulated service conditions in the laboratory, much can be learned about how the failure actually occurred. 

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