Primeval matter

Early stages of the universe are listed in Table 15.2. Primeval matter was merging into elementary particles, huge amounts of energy were released and the big bang immediately caused a rapid expansion of the universe. Within about 1 s the temperature decreased markedly, matter and antimatter annihilated each other, quarks combined into mesons and baryons and enoimous amounts of energy were liberated causing further expansion. Formation of the first protons and leptons is assumed after about 1 s, when the temperature of the early universe was about lO K. 

The fundamental assumption was that Chaos represented apeiron, the boundless, infinite and indeterminate original state of the Universe, before the beginning of space and time. From Chaos emerged the first god Chronos, who produced the World Egg of Alchemy. As the god Zeus hatched from the cosmic egg, the shell transformed into Heaven, the skin into Earth, leaving behind Materia prima, the primeval matter that was turned into the four elements through the action of forma, which gave form to shapeless matter. Philosophically, creation brought order, or Cosmos, into Chaos. 

In the 4 century BC the simple theory of matter consisted of a primeval matter and two pairs of qualities (hot cold and wet dry). These were combined into the four elements out of which all material things were formed by combination. Today one recognizes FIRE = Heat, and the other elements are representative of the three phases Gas, Liquid, and Solid. 

An unknown event disturbed the equilibrium of the interstellar cloud, and it collapsed. This process may have been caused by shock waves from a supernova explosion, or by a density wave of a spiral arm of the galaxy. The gas molecules and the particles were compressed, and with increasing compression, both temperature and pressure increased. It is possible that the centrifugal forces due to the rotation of the system prevented a spherical contraction. The result was a relatively flat, rotating disc of matter, in the centre of which was the primeval sun. Analogues of the early solar system, i.e., protoplanetary discs, have been identified from the radiation emitted by T Tauri stars (Koerner, 1997). 

More than 99% of the total mass of the whole system was present in the protosun. The formation of this disc is demonstrated by the coplanar movement of the planets and by the fact that they all rotate in the same direction around the sun. The increasingly concentrated matter in the primeval sun influenced the rotating disc of matter so that its diameter decreased and the rate of rotation of the whole system increased. 

Fig. 2.2 The state of the incipient solar system during the T Tauri phase of the young sun. The central region around the sun was blown free from the primeval dust cloud. Behind the shock front is the disc with the remaining solar nebula, which contained the matter formed by the influence of the solar wind on the primeval solar nebula. From Gaffey (1997)... 

According to the homogeneous model, the metal-containing materials (in particular iron and nickel) and the silicate-containing material of the primeval solar cloud condensed out at about the same time. The proto-Earth thus formed was composed of a mixture of these two types of matter, which differed greatly in their densities. At that time, the Earth s temperature was probably only a few hundred degrees, and... 

Carbonaceous chondrites (C-chondrites) account for only 2-3% of the meteorites so far found, but the amount of research carried out on them is considerable. C-chondrites contain carbon both in elemental form and as compounds. They are without doubt the oldest relicts of primeval solar matter, which has been changed only slightly or not at all by metamorphosis. C-chondrites contain all the components of the primeval solar nebula, apart from those which are volatile they are often referred to as primitive meteorites . 

This argument, however, ignores an essential aspect of the second law, which is valid only for closed systems, i.e., systems for which neither matter nor energy can be exchanged with the environment. The chemical and physical processes which led to biogenesis on the primeval Earth did not take placed in closed systems, but in open ones. Matter and energy exchange were in fact essential for the successful execution of reaction sequences, as for example in the formation and synthesis of biomonomers. 

In recent years, the transitions from nonliving to living matter have been the subject of three seminars, bringing together theoreticians and experimentalists in the Los Alamos National Laboratory, in the Santa Fe Institute and in Dortmund. The biogenesis problem was expanded to the question, how can simple life forms be synthesised in the laboratory Artificial cells (sometimes called protocells) could be quite different from the cell types known today, or from primeval cells they might, for example, be orders of magnitude smaller than a bacterium. The seminars posed three questions for further work ... 

The course of biogenesis was carved into molecular structures by the events of the primeval initiation of our universe. The speed at which pure energy segregated into baryonic matter leads one to think that there was no other possibility. (Physicists quipped that God may not have had a choice in the matter). The Genomic Potential Hypothesis extends this inevitability concept into the biogenic events, and the speed at which life assembled itself from molecules immediately (by geological standards) after the earth had become stable enough for chemical processes certainly invites the conclusion that luck had no part in this matter either. 

CHAOS — The Philosophers have given by comparison the name of Chaos to the Matter of the Work in a state of putrefaction, because then the Elements or Principles of the Stone are in such confusion that they cannot be distinguished. This chaos is developed by volatilisation the abyss of water leaves the earth visible little by little in proportion as the humidity is sublimed and rises to the summit of the vase. It is for this reason the Hermetic Chemists have compared their work to the development of the universe out of the primeval chaos. 

The vapour of which we are speaking contains a spirit of light of fire being of the nature of the celestial bodies. This spirit should be properly considered as the form of the universe. The vapour thus impregnated by the Universal Spirit accurately represents the primeval chaos, wherein was enclosed all that was necessary for the creation, that is, universal matter and universal form. 

We have already seen that around 70% of the human body is water and this should be no surprise since, following development of the primeval cells in the oceans, evolution has continued within an aqueous environment and exploited the unique properties of water to the best advantage to living systems. Water is the only naturally occurring inorganic liquid and is the only compound which occurs in nature in all three physical states of matter solid, liquid, and gas. The omnipotence of the roles of water in the human body may be seen by reference to Table 1.1. Water is used to provide bulk to the body and use is also made of its unusual chemical properties. 

There was no place for prime matter in Helmont s system. His theory of elements replaced it by water, and likewise left no room for Paracelsus s tria prima and Aristotle s element of fire, which were not found in Genesis 1." If fire and the tria prima were not elements, that left only air, water and earth. Helmont inferred from the Biblical story of creation the primacy of water and air, for the spirit on the primeval waters (Genesis 1.2) could be understood, as it was by some Church Fathers, to be wind or air ... 

In medicine, too, the story of the creation and the fall provided a rationale for Helmont s theories of disease and mineral remedies. Minerals were generated in the subterranean abyss, the remnant of the watery deep of creation, and they sprang from seeds of matter placed there by God at creation. So both in their matrix and in their divinely implanted seeds, minerals were of primeval origin and preserved continuity with the creation. This gave them immense power, as coming straight from the Creator s hand, and justified... 

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