J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 69 (2000) pp. 1907-1916  |Next Article|  |Table of Contents|
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The Origin of Life with Natural Selection

Yutaka Toyozawa

(Received January 13, 2000)

Considering the estimated chemical energy per atom of typical biomolecules and the continuance of living activities for billions of years, we present a scenario of the origin of life according to which the solar radiation caused successive photochemical reactions in aqueous solution of simple molecules and brought them up to the biomolecules through virtual molecules as intermediate states.The result is a severe competition for the acquisiton of chemical energy among different channels of successive photoexcitations, which built in the mechanism of natural selection into chemical evolution at its very beginning. Peculiar structure of biomolecules is ascribed to the natural selection with maximal path probability. Photoionization of solute molecules assisted by the strong hydration effect plays an important role in promoting chemical reactions in the solution, sometimes as photocatalyst. ©2000 The Physical Society of Japan

KEYWORDS: natural selection, chemical evolution, biomolecule, virtual molecule, aqueous solution, strong relaxation, hydration, photochemical reaction, photocatalyst, photopolymerization, photosynthesis
URL: http://jpsj.ipap.jp/link?JPSJ/69/1907/
DOI: 10.1143/JPSJ.69.1907

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