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In this review, we describe some of the central philosophical issues facing origins-of-life research and provide a targeted history of the developments that have led to the multidisciplinary field of origins-of-life studies. We outline these issues and developments to guide researchers and students from all fields. With respect to philosophy, we provide brief summaries of debates with respect to (1) definitions (or theories) of life, what life is and how research should be conducted in the absence of an accepted theory of life, (2) the distinctions between synthetic, historical, and universal projects in origins-of-life studies, issues with strategies for inferring the origins of life, such as (3) the nature of the first living entities (the "bottom up" approach) and (4) how to infer the nature of the last universal common ancestor (the "top down" approach), and (5) the status of origins of life as a science. Each of these debates influences the others. Although there are clusters of researchers that agree on some answers to these issues, each of these debates is still open. With respect to history, we outline several independent paths that have led to some of the approaches now prevalent in origins-of-life studies. These include one path from early views of life through the scientific revolutions brought about by Linnaeus (von Linn.), Wöhler, Miller, and others. In this approach, new theories, tools, and evidence guide new thoughts about the nature of life and its origin. We also describe another family of paths motivated by a" circularity" approach to life, which is guided by such thinkers as Maturana & Varela, Gánti, Rosen, and others. These views echo ideas developed by Kant and Aristotle, though they do so using modern science in ways that produce exciting avenues of investigation. By exploring the history of these ideas, we can see how many of the issues that currently interest us have been guided by the contexts in which the ideas were developed. The disciplinary backgrounds of each of these scholars has influenced the questions they sought to answer, the experiments they envisioned, and the kinds of data they collected. We conclude by encouraging scientists and scholars in the humanities and social sciences to explore ways in which they can interact to provide a deeper understanding of the conceptual assumptions, structure, and history of origins-of-life research. This may be useful to help frame future research agendas and bring awareness to the multifaceted issues facing this challenging scientific question.

Book

The Origins of Life and Evolution. : Proc. of a Symp. held at the Marine Biolog. Lab.,Woods Hole,Massachusetts

New York : Alan R. Liss, 1980

MBL Lectures in Biology,vol.1.

14,126 s..,tab.,grafy. : Bibliogr.,rejstřík.

Article

Membraneless polyester microdroplets as primordial compartments at the origins of life

Compartmentalization was likely essential for primitive chemical systems during the emergence of life ...

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2019 ; 116 (32) : 15830-15835. [pub] 20190722

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
ISSN 1091-6490
Medvik
Source

Compartmentalization was likely essential for primitive chemical systems during the emergence of life, both for preventing leakage of important components, i.e., genetic materials, and for enhancing chemical reactions. Although life as we know it uses lipid bilayer-based compartments, the diversity of prebiotic chemistry may have enabled primitive living systems to start from other types of boundary systems. Here, we demonstrate membraneless compartmentalization based on prebiotically available organic compounds, α-hydroxy acids (αHAs), which are generally coproduced along with α-amino acids in prebiotic settings. Facile polymerization of αHAs provides a model pathway for the assembly of combinatorially diverse primitive compartments on early Earth. We characterized membraneless microdroplets generated from homo- and heteropolyesters synthesized from drying solutions of αHAs endowed with various side chains. These compartments can preferentially and differentially segregate and compartmentalize fluorescent dyes and fluorescently tagged RNA, providing readily available compartments that could have facilitated chemical evolution by protecting, exchanging, and encapsulating primitive components. Protein function within and RNA function in the presence of certain droplets is also preserved, suggesting the potential relevance of such droplets to various origins of life models. As a lipid amphiphile can also assemble around certain droplets, this further shows the droplets' potential compatibility with and scaffolding ability for nascent biomolecular systems that could have coexisted in complex chemical systems. These model compartments could have been more accessible in a "messy" prebiotic environment, enabling the localization of a variety of protometabolic and replication processes that could be subjected to further chemical evolution before the advent of the Last Universal Common Ancestor.

MeSH
Fluorescent Dyes chemistry MeSH
Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching MeSH
Hydrogen-Ion Concentration MeSH
Carboxylic Acids chemistry MeSH
Membranes, Artificial * MeSH
Polyesters chemical synthesis chemistry MeSH
Origin of Life * MeSH
RNA chemistry MeSH
Particle Size MeSH
Publication type
Journal Article MeSH
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH

Article

OBJECTIVES: Attributing life changes to age represents a core marker of the subjective experience of ...

The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences. 2021 ; 76 (5) : 881-893. [pub] 20210423

J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci
ISSN 1758-5368
Medvik
Source

OBJECTIVES: Attributing life changes to age represents a core marker of the subjective experience of aging. The aims of our study were to investigate views on aging (VA) as origins of age-related attributions of life changes and to investigate the implications of these age-related attributions for personal control (PC) and life satisfaction (LS). METHODS: Life changes and the attribution of life changes to age were independently assessed on a large international sample of older adults (N = 2,900; age range 40-90 years) from the Ageing as Future project. The valence of VA, PC, and LS were also assessed to investigate possible determinants (VA) and consequences (PC and LS) of age-related attributions of life changes. RESULTS: Attributions to age were shown to depend on the valence of experienced life changes, with more negative changes being linked to more age-related attributions. This relation was moderated by the valence of personally held VA, with more negative VA amplifying the relation between negative life changes and age-related attributions. Age-related attributions predicted reduced PC and lower LS and were found to exacerbate the effects of negative life changes on LS, especially for the older cohorts of our sample. DISCUSSION: Our findings help to better understand what determines age-related attributions of life changes and highlight the negative consequences of attributing them to aging. Age-related attributions of change are a major factor that worsens the subjective aging experience. Methodologically, our study emphasizes the necessity to separately assess changes and their attributions to age.