448
J. Maruani
4.1 Main Steps of Biological Evolution
Nowadays it is recognized that not only life on the Earth but also the whole Universe
has a beginning and a history [14, 15]. A current view is that life emerged as a
unique cosmic accident. Nobel Laureate Jacques Monod expressed this view in a
form reminiscent of Blaise Pascal’s frightened wonder of man’s loneliness [17]:
‘… Man at last knows he is alone in the indifferent immensity of the Universe, from which
he has emerged by chance. As well as his destiny, his duty is written nowhere ….’
But it appears more and more likely that life can arise, evolve and expand in a large
number of planets as soon as it gets a chance, provided that a number of conditions
be fulfilled. In the 19th century, Louis Pasteur expressed an even more radical view:
‘I have been looking for spontaneous generation for twenty years without discovering it ….
What allows you to make it the origin of life? You place matter before life and you decide
that matter has existed for all eternity. How do you know if the incessant progress of science
will not compel scientists [who will live in a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand years] … to
consider that life has existed during eternity, not matter? ….’
René Dubos, Louis Pasteur: Free Lance of Science (Da Capo Press, Boston, 1950)
Some of the conditions for the appearance of life on an exoplanet are conjonctural,
and probably similar to those that exist on the Earth. But others appear essential for
being related to the very structure of our Universe: especially the numerical values
of the nuclear, electromagnetic, and gravitational force constants. The fact that these
fall precisely in the narrow ranges that make it possible for heavy elements to exist,
white stars to emerge, and planets to have stable orbits led to introduce the so-called
Anthropic principle [20, 21]. This principle has various formulations, but it may
be seen as a kind of ‘natural selection’ (in space/time) of our universe among an
infinity of possible universes, the ‘fitness criterium’ being that of being able to lead
to Mankind! It may also be seen as a kind of Fermat or Hamilton principle, with
the shortest optical path or lowest action integral being replaced by ‘man-fit forceconstant values’. The fact that the nuclear, electromagnetic, and gravitational force
constants are very close to numbers that are endowed with particular properties [27,
28] pleads for this idea.
The electric force constant, in particular: a ≈ 137.036, has been shown to relate the
weights of the 4 DNA nucleotides, as well as those of the 20 encoded proteinogenic
aminoacids, through the relations [28]:
GC ≈ 613.58, AT ≈ 612.60 → GC ≈ AT + 1;
(10a)
(3/2)(GC + AT )(= 1839.27) ≈ m H /m e (= 1837.15);
(10b)
GC/AT ≈ (a/137)
6
(∼ 24 ppm);
(10c)
M Cd ≈ 3
3 a (< 0.5%); M Am ≈ a (< 0.9%),
(10d)
J. Maruani
4.1 Main Steps of Biological Evolution
Nowadays it is recognized that not only life on the Earth but also the whole Universe
has a beginning and a history [14, 15]. A current view is that life emerged as a
unique cosmic accident. Nobel Laureate Jacques Monod expressed this view in a
form reminiscent of Blaise Pascal’s frightened wonder of man’s loneliness [17]:
‘… Man at last knows he is alone in the indifferent immensity of the Universe, from which
he has emerged by chance. As well as his destiny, his duty is written nowhere ….’
But it appears more and more likely that life can arise, evolve and expand in a large
number of planets as soon as it gets a chance, provided that a number of conditions
be fulfilled. In the 19th century, Louis Pasteur expressed an even more radical view:
‘I have been looking for spontaneous generation for twenty years without discovering it ….
What allows you to make it the origin of life? You place matter before life and you decide
that matter has existed for all eternity. How do you know if the incessant progress of science
will not compel scientists [who will live in a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand years] … to
consider that life has existed during eternity, not matter? ….’
René Dubos, Louis Pasteur: Free Lance of Science (Da Capo Press, Boston, 1950)
Some of the conditions for the appearance of life on an exoplanet are conjonctural,
and probably similar to those that exist on the Earth. But others appear essential for
being related to the very structure of our Universe: especially the numerical values
of the nuclear, electromagnetic, and gravitational force constants. The fact that these
fall precisely in the narrow ranges that make it possible for heavy elements to exist,
white stars to emerge, and planets to have stable orbits led to introduce the so-called
Anthropic principle [20, 21]. This principle has various formulations, but it may
be seen as a kind of ‘natural selection’ (in space/time) of our universe among an
infinity of possible universes, the ‘fitness criterium’ being that of being able to lead
to Mankind! It may also be seen as a kind of Fermat or Hamilton principle, with
the shortest optical path or lowest action integral being replaced by ‘man-fit forceconstant values’. The fact that the nuclear, electromagnetic, and gravitational force
constants are very close to numbers that are endowed with particular properties [27,
28] pleads for this idea.
The electric force constant, in particular: a ≈ 137.036, has been shown to relate the
weights of the 4 DNA nucleotides, as well as those of the 20 encoded proteinogenic
aminoacids, through the relations [28]:
GC ≈ 613.58, AT ≈ 612.60 → GC ≈ AT + 1;
(10a)
(3/2)(GC + AT )(= 1839.27) ≈ m H /m e (= 1837.15);
(10b)
GC/AT ≈ (a/137)
6
(∼ 24 ppm);
(10c)
M Cd ≈ 3
3 a (< 0.5%); M Am ≈ a (< 0.9%),
(10d)