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Steps towards Life: A Perspective on Evolution
This fascinating work, co-authored by a Nobel Prize winning scientist, extends Darwin's ideas on natural selection back into evolutionary time and applies them to the molecular "fossil record" that preceded the origin of life. Using the techniques of molecular biology, the book demonstrates
that life on Earth is the inevitable result of certain chance events that took place in the unique history of our planet. Furthermore, researchers can not only precisely formulate the laws governing the emergence of life, but also test them under controlled laboratory conditions. In fact, the
authors show how it is perfectly possible to construct evolutionary accelerators that optimize the conditions for certain events and which can be used to demonstrate their theoretical conclusions in laboratory experiments. The book is organized into three sections. Each of the 10 chapters in the
first section are introduced by quotations from Thomas Mann's classic novel The Magic Mountain , a work that is deeply concerned with the themes presented here in scientific form. In the second part, important biological ideas form the themes of 15 colorfully illustrated vignettes, which can be read
separately or as elaborations on the first section. The final section summarizes key events in the history of molecular biology and includes an extensive glossary of technical terms. Written for a wide audience, and already highly successful in the original German edition, this book brings fresh
insight to the search for evolutionary origins. General readers will find it clear and accessible, as will students and scientists in biochemistry, molecular biology, microbiology, and evolution.
that life on Earth is the inevitable result of certain chance events that took place in the unique history of our planet. Furthermore, researchers can not only precisely formulate the laws governing the emergence of life, but also test them under controlled laboratory conditions. In fact, the
authors show how it is perfectly possible to construct evolutionary accelerators that optimize the conditions for certain events and which can be used to demonstrate their theoretical conclusions in laboratory experiments. The book is organized into three sections. Each of the 10 chapters in the
first section are introduced by quotations from Thomas Mann's classic novel The Magic Mountain , a work that is deeply concerned with the themes presented here in scientific form. In the second part, important biological ideas form the themes of 15 colorfully illustrated vignettes, which can be read
separately or as elaborations on the first section. The final section summarizes key events in the history of molecular biology and includes an extensive glossary of technical terms. Written for a wide audience, and already highly successful in the original German edition, this book brings fresh
insight to the search for evolutionary origins. General readers will find it clear and accessible, as will students and scientists in biochemistry, molecular biology, microbiology, and evolution.
190 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
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January 5, 2025
A DE-EMPHASIS OF THE ROLE OF ‘BLIND CHANCE’ IN EVOLUTIONARY DEVELOPMENT
Nobel Prize-winning chemist Manfred Eigen (1927-2019) wrote in the Preface to this 1987 book, “Molecular biology… has gathered a momentum undreamed of at the outset of its short history…There is no shortage of excellent descriptions of this modern subject… The only thing lacking in this new knowledge if its integration into a general understanding of Nature. So far, such an attempt has been undertaken only once, by Jacques Monod [in his ’Chance and Necessity’]. This was a fascinating and ambitious attempt, in which Monod did not shrink from drawing philosophical conclusions. It culminated in an apotheosis of chance… If it really were to emerge that there is only ‘pure chance, absolutely free but blind, at the very root of the stupendous edifice of evolution,’ then this book would be superfluous. Our only task would be to report bald facts… This would relegate biology to the … world-edifice of physics.
“This book takes up the theme of Monod… But we shall not persist in proclaiming the omnipotence of chance, which has ruled over physics on the microscopic level since Maxwell and Boltzmann… The arguments to be put forward here are based upon exact mathematical models and upon experimental studies of biological material. This book is intended to communicate new discoveries.. Darwin’s view is accepted, just as the role of chance is accepted. However, this role will be interpreted in a way quite different from that current in biology.”
He explains, “we need to refer to the earliest branching-points of the phylogenetic family tree… The assumption of successive branching in phylogeny is indeed inescapable, if we start off by assuming that species really did develop by evolution and can be traced back to a single ancestor. But in order to PROVE evolutionary development, we would need first to DEDUCE a pattern of consecutive branching, as an empirical result from available data. If a branching pattern emerged, and turned out to be clearly distinguishable from alternative patterns… when we could take it as strong evidence for the historical reality of evolutionary development. We therefore seek a procedure to help us deduce precise topologies of branching.” (Pg. 4)
He states, “We find that the selection principle is neither a mystical axiom immanent in living matter nor a general tendency observable primarily in living processes. On the contrary, it is… a clear ‘if-then’ principle… according to which defined initial situations lead to deducible behavior patterns… The initial situation must fulfill the following prerequisites: *The individuals (DNA, molecules, viruses, bacteria) among which selection must take place must be self-reproducing… *The first condition … is modified by allowing the self-reproduction to be subject to error… *The self-replication must take place far away from chemical equilibrium… Information cannot originate in a system that is at equilibrium.” (Pg. 18)
He outlines, “The generation of a superior mutant, which was left to chance in the neo-Darwinian model, is now seen to be determined by the following causal chain: *Mutants… arise primarily by erroneous copying of the wild type… *Selective advantage can generally be expected only for relatively large mutation jumps. These cannot occur frequently by statistical fluctuation. (The initial … distribution is modified by selection of preferred states within the quasi-species distribution… *An asymmetric spectrum of mutants builds up… The population in such a chain of mutants is influenced decisively by the structure of the value landscape. *The value landscape consists of connected plains, hills, and mountain ranges… *It is precisely in the mountainous regions that further selectively superior mutants can be expected…. *The occupation of the ridges … by efficient mutants steers the process of evolution systematically in the direction in which a higher peak is expected. This circumvents the need to try out blindly a vast number of valueless sequences. This causal chain results in a kind of ‘mass action,’ by which the superior mutants are tested with much higher probability than inferior mutants.” (Pg. 25)
He asserts, “In order to deny the possibility of a natural origin of life, one would have to be acquainted with all the historically possible conditions and then to show that there is no catalytic mechanism that under ANY of these sets of conditions would have carried out the desired task. Such a proof is hardly conceivable, on account of the enormous number of possible mechanisms and conditions that would have to be excluded. But the possibility of such a proof can itself be disproved. The biosynthesis of the living cell is already a mechanism of the kind in question. It is admittedly complex, but is completely interpretable within the scope of our present-day physical and chemical knowledge… What we know makes it probable that there are also simpler, less efficient mechanisms that were realizable under prebiotic conditions…The historical evidence that every cell bears within itself points to a continuous evolution of molecular mechanisms. The chemistry that we find in living organisms is in principle identical with the chemistry that we practice in our laboratories.” (Pg. 37-38)
He notes, “The origin of life cannot simply be defined as the transition from inanimate to animate matter. For one thing, this transition as such cannot be pinpointed, as it is a gradual one. For another, it does not conclude the evolution of life; on the contrary, it sets off an uninterrupted chain of developments whose complexity vastly exceeds that of the first steps toward life. Indeed, the earliest autonomous organisms are far more distant from mankind than they are from ‘that Nature that did not even deserve the name dead, because it was inorganic.’” (Pg. 48)
He states, ‘We should really be asking the questions: How did the program that the enzymes execute come into being? How did enzymes become adapted to their teleonomic function? It is true that Monod regarded optimization as caused by evolution, which is connected to time’s arrow and cannot run backwards … and he saw that evolution, with the help of selection, ‘draws from the inexhaustible well of chance.’ But Monod went too far in believing that only chance can be a source of creation, while necessity, physical law, must be content with the minor role of a blind selection sieve.” (Pg. 123)
He summarizes, “The new theme which this book has taken up is the detailed description of selection and evolution. Without this detail, the complexity and teleonomy of life would be incomprehensible. The old theme is and will remain Darwin’s idea: the principle of evolution by natural selection.” (Pg. 125)
He concludes, “The frequently raised question, ‘Creation OR evolution?’ thus stems from a non-existent contradiction, since the word ‘or’ implies a confrontation between two incommensurable projections. I am well aware that these questions have occupied a central position in the subjective consciousness of many people. Nevertheless, although I am frequently asked about such matters, I have in this book left them untouched. Banal replies such as ‘Evolution is the realization of creation by means of natural law’ do little to satisfy, or to help, those who are seeking answers on this matter. They are in fact asking about something quite different, problems for which science offers no solution.” (Pg. 127)
This book will interest those seeking more than just ‘routine’ answers to such questions.
Nobel Prize-winning chemist Manfred Eigen (1927-2019) wrote in the Preface to this 1987 book, “Molecular biology… has gathered a momentum undreamed of at the outset of its short history…There is no shortage of excellent descriptions of this modern subject… The only thing lacking in this new knowledge if its integration into a general understanding of Nature. So far, such an attempt has been undertaken only once, by Jacques Monod [in his ’Chance and Necessity’]. This was a fascinating and ambitious attempt, in which Monod did not shrink from drawing philosophical conclusions. It culminated in an apotheosis of chance… If it really were to emerge that there is only ‘pure chance, absolutely free but blind, at the very root of the stupendous edifice of evolution,’ then this book would be superfluous. Our only task would be to report bald facts… This would relegate biology to the … world-edifice of physics.
“This book takes up the theme of Monod… But we shall not persist in proclaiming the omnipotence of chance, which has ruled over physics on the microscopic level since Maxwell and Boltzmann… The arguments to be put forward here are based upon exact mathematical models and upon experimental studies of biological material. This book is intended to communicate new discoveries.. Darwin’s view is accepted, just as the role of chance is accepted. However, this role will be interpreted in a way quite different from that current in biology.”
He explains, “we need to refer to the earliest branching-points of the phylogenetic family tree… The assumption of successive branching in phylogeny is indeed inescapable, if we start off by assuming that species really did develop by evolution and can be traced back to a single ancestor. But in order to PROVE evolutionary development, we would need first to DEDUCE a pattern of consecutive branching, as an empirical result from available data. If a branching pattern emerged, and turned out to be clearly distinguishable from alternative patterns… when we could take it as strong evidence for the historical reality of evolutionary development. We therefore seek a procedure to help us deduce precise topologies of branching.” (Pg. 4)
He states, “We find that the selection principle is neither a mystical axiom immanent in living matter nor a general tendency observable primarily in living processes. On the contrary, it is… a clear ‘if-then’ principle… according to which defined initial situations lead to deducible behavior patterns… The initial situation must fulfill the following prerequisites: *The individuals (DNA, molecules, viruses, bacteria) among which selection must take place must be self-reproducing… *The first condition … is modified by allowing the self-reproduction to be subject to error… *The self-replication must take place far away from chemical equilibrium… Information cannot originate in a system that is at equilibrium.” (Pg. 18)
He outlines, “The generation of a superior mutant, which was left to chance in the neo-Darwinian model, is now seen to be determined by the following causal chain: *Mutants… arise primarily by erroneous copying of the wild type… *Selective advantage can generally be expected only for relatively large mutation jumps. These cannot occur frequently by statistical fluctuation. (The initial … distribution is modified by selection of preferred states within the quasi-species distribution… *An asymmetric spectrum of mutants builds up… The population in such a chain of mutants is influenced decisively by the structure of the value landscape. *The value landscape consists of connected plains, hills, and mountain ranges… *It is precisely in the mountainous regions that further selectively superior mutants can be expected…. *The occupation of the ridges … by efficient mutants steers the process of evolution systematically in the direction in which a higher peak is expected. This circumvents the need to try out blindly a vast number of valueless sequences. This causal chain results in a kind of ‘mass action,’ by which the superior mutants are tested with much higher probability than inferior mutants.” (Pg. 25)
He asserts, “In order to deny the possibility of a natural origin of life, one would have to be acquainted with all the historically possible conditions and then to show that there is no catalytic mechanism that under ANY of these sets of conditions would have carried out the desired task. Such a proof is hardly conceivable, on account of the enormous number of possible mechanisms and conditions that would have to be excluded. But the possibility of such a proof can itself be disproved. The biosynthesis of the living cell is already a mechanism of the kind in question. It is admittedly complex, but is completely interpretable within the scope of our present-day physical and chemical knowledge… What we know makes it probable that there are also simpler, less efficient mechanisms that were realizable under prebiotic conditions…The historical evidence that every cell bears within itself points to a continuous evolution of molecular mechanisms. The chemistry that we find in living organisms is in principle identical with the chemistry that we practice in our laboratories.” (Pg. 37-38)
He notes, “The origin of life cannot simply be defined as the transition from inanimate to animate matter. For one thing, this transition as such cannot be pinpointed, as it is a gradual one. For another, it does not conclude the evolution of life; on the contrary, it sets off an uninterrupted chain of developments whose complexity vastly exceeds that of the first steps toward life. Indeed, the earliest autonomous organisms are far more distant from mankind than they are from ‘that Nature that did not even deserve the name dead, because it was inorganic.’” (Pg. 48)
He states, ‘We should really be asking the questions: How did the program that the enzymes execute come into being? How did enzymes become adapted to their teleonomic function? It is true that Monod regarded optimization as caused by evolution, which is connected to time’s arrow and cannot run backwards … and he saw that evolution, with the help of selection, ‘draws from the inexhaustible well of chance.’ But Monod went too far in believing that only chance can be a source of creation, while necessity, physical law, must be content with the minor role of a blind selection sieve.” (Pg. 123)
He summarizes, “The new theme which this book has taken up is the detailed description of selection and evolution. Without this detail, the complexity and teleonomy of life would be incomprehensible. The old theme is and will remain Darwin’s idea: the principle of evolution by natural selection.” (Pg. 125)
He concludes, “The frequently raised question, ‘Creation OR evolution?’ thus stems from a non-existent contradiction, since the word ‘or’ implies a confrontation between two incommensurable projections. I am well aware that these questions have occupied a central position in the subjective consciousness of many people. Nevertheless, although I am frequently asked about such matters, I have in this book left them untouched. Banal replies such as ‘Evolution is the realization of creation by means of natural law’ do little to satisfy, or to help, those who are seeking answers on this matter. They are in fact asking about something quite different, problems for which science offers no solution.” (Pg. 127)
This book will interest those seeking more than just ‘routine’ answers to such questions.
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