The Genomic Potential Hypothesis

Schwabe, C. (2001). The Genomic Potential Hypothesis, a Chemist s View on the Origin and Evolution of Life. Landes Bioscience. 

The Genomic Potential Hypothesis A Chemist s View of the Origins, Evolution and Unfolding of Life, by Christian Schwabe. 2001 Eurekah.com... 

Fossils and chemistry would be stretching correlations within a Darwinian framework but that relation is the substance of the new hypothesis. Chemistry is part of the logical core of biology, which will become more obvious when speciation is considered in the Genomic Potential Hypothesis. It is, like all of evolution, about molecules that self-organize without the help of anything but other molecules, i.e., chemistry. 

The multiple origins hypothesis is built upon the marvelous but not miraculous properties of chemistry which are engraved in the structure of atoms. All of the postulates of the Genomic Potential Hypothesis, which stay well within the epistemological framework of a scientific dissertation, provide a legitimate basis for experimental testing. 

These pictures11 are simplified to provide an unobstructed view of one of the most important principles of the inanimate world. The power of the Genomic Potential Hypothesis stems from the realization that there is no purpose and no goal in all of this and that syntheses came about because of the predisposition of atomic and molecular structures for such reactions under certain conditions. In contrast to the chance-oriented Darwinian paradigm, this model invites experimental exploration. 

Fig. 4.6. Here the principle of bond length and angles is shown in connection with the core molecules of all of life, the monomers of DNA. The configuration of bonding orbitals leads to the selection of bonding partners in the DNA and this arrangement again causes the continual reproduction of DNA through the complementarity principle. While this concept applies to molecular interactions in general, there is nowhere a more impressive demonstration of a principle that is central to life and central to the Genomic Potential Hypothesis than this threshold of information production.

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. 

Darwinians view the origin of life as a lucky strike.1,2 Chance events, however, are irreducible and irreproducible so that comparison between the old and the new model becomes possible only from the moment when life had been established. Of course, every one invokes chemistry when it comes to the origin of life but for chemistry the single is out of character. Nonetheless, the consequences of any origin of life scenario should be expressed in the fossil record and this is the part where comparison of models becomes possible. In as much as the Darwinists deal with the topic of this chapter with one word (chance), the Genomic Potential Hypothesis is alone in its effort to build a conceptual basis for biogenesis. 

Should development come after speciation Yes, of course, in the new model it is natural, one produces the Anlage and develops it to its potential. The word evolution is derived from the latin term evolvere which means to roll out and that describes precisely the process postulated in the Genomic Potential Hypothesis for the post-Cambrian time. With speciation behind us there remain two distinct ph ases of evolution in the widest sense of the word, the streamlining of the chemistry in the nucleus, which leaves no traces other than species-specific stem cells, and the post-Cambrian unrolling of species and variants that produces a spectacular display of phenotypes. Looks like we are on the right track. 

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