Primordial matter

The earlier assumption that Luna was a body which had been captured by the Earth can now be regarded as relatively unlikely. The same is true for the double planet hypothesis , according to which Luna and the Earth were formed at the same time from condensing primordial matter (Taylor, 1994). There are, however, still disagreements on the point in time at which the collision occurred and on the masses and the physical states of the heavenly bodies involved (Halliday and Drake, 1999). 

No sooner is the modem Doctrine of Elements laid aside, than the discoveries of the Primordial Matter, the Transmutation of Metals, and the Elixir of Life reappear and once more enter the range of the possible. (9)... 

Aristotle of Stageiros (384-322 BCE) did not agree with his teacher s geometric bodies for the different elements. He rejected the Democritian atoms in which matter was considered a principle but form was a secondary characteristic. Nor did he accept the existence of a void. According to the Aristotelian view, the four elements arose from the action on primordial matter by pairs of qualities (warm + dry, fire, warm + moist, air, cold + dry, earth, cold + moist, water). He introduced another element, ether, as a divine substance of which the heavens and stars are made (23). 

Isaac Beeckman (1588-1637 CE), a Dutch natural philosopher, proposed a molecular theory in his scientific diary . He assrrmed that there were four kinds of atoms corresponding to the four elements of the one sole primordial matter. He considered these atoms to be the cause of the properties of the substances, for example, color, taste, smell, etc. The molecules of substances were called homogenea physica (physical homogenea) and were composed of the atoms in specific spatial stracture. His private diary was available to several savants such as Descartes, who acknowledged these ideas in several books (41). 

A few years ago, when present theories concerning the formation of the universe were proposed, cosmologisis suggested that only hydrogen and helium and also lithium, in very small concentrations, were present in the primordial matter. It was postulated that all other elements were produced as the result of subsequent star formation through nuclear reactions or cosmic ray radiation, thus creating all of the elements in die Periodic Table. 

T 10 ° K, density 10 ° gem primordial matter (quark-gluon plasma)... 

Merging of primordial matter into elementary particles, such as protons and neutrons release of huge amounts of energy, beginning of rapid expansion... 

In the beginning, through Divine Wisdom, the Great Whole World was created out of this materia prima (Chaos). This materia is with the Human Being one nature, but with this difference, that this Primordial Matter expands in all creatures, but in Human Being it concentrates. That is the true Self-Knowledge, the highest Study in hermetic Science. 

For Aristotle, the elements themselves are unobservable and transcendental (in Paneth s terminology), although they give rise to all the variety we see before us. The four elements (fire, earth, water, and air) are regarded as property bearers and are responsible for the properties of substance, although they are themselves unobservable. The elements are immaterial qualities impressed on an otherwise undifferentiated primordial matter and are present in all substances. Furthermore, the properties of substances are governed by the proportion of the four elements present within them. 

These quotations stand in marked contrast to Lothar Meyer s statement that the existence of some sixty or even more fundamentally different kinds of primordial matter is intrinsically not very probable" (1884, p. 129). 

Paneth, F. A. 1965. "Chemical Elements and Primordial Matter MendeleefTs View and the Present Position." In H. Dingle, G. R. Martin, eds. Chemistry and Beyond (pp. 53-72). New York Wiley. 

A particularly good definition for the subject of this paper can be found in a dictionary such as "Merriam Webster s Collegiate Dictionary" [1] CHAOS 1 obs Chasm, Abyss 2 a often cap a state of things in which chance is supreme esp the conjused unorganized state of primordial matter before the creation of distinct forms b the inherent unpredictability in the behavior of a natural system (as the atmosphere, boiling water, or the beating heart) 3 a a state of utter confusion b a conjused mass or mixture. The inherait unpredictability in the behavior of a natural system is the concept that we will develop in the next sections in close connection with non-equilibrium thermodynamics of chemical systems. 

What is called chemistry in the traditional sense only begins when primordial matter has cooled sufficiently to allow the nuclei to retain... 

EA. Paneth, Chemical Elements and Primordial Matter, in H. Dingle, G.R. Martin (eds.). Chemistry and Beyond,Wiey, New York, 1965, pp. 53—72, quoted from pp. 56—57. 

The actinides uranium and thorium occur in nature as primordial matter. Actinium and protactinium occur in nature as daughters of thorium and uranium, while small amounts of neptunium and plutonium are present as a result of neutron-capture reactions of uranium. All other members of the series are man-made. Separation chemistry has been central to the isolation and purification of the actinides since their discovery. The formation of the transplutonium actinides was established only as a result of chemical-separation procedures developed specifically for that purpose. The continued application of separation science has resulted in the availability of weighable quantities of the actinides to fermium. Separation procedures are central to one-atom-at-a-time chemistry used to identify synthetic trans-actinide (superheavy) elements to element 107 and above (Report of a Workshop on Transactinium Science 1990). 

Bensaude-Vincent has pointed out that the logical consequence of Lavoisier s definition was the hypothesis of a primordial matter (Bensaude-Vincent (note 45), 12). 

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