scholarly journals Nerves, Vibration and the Aeolian Harp

2009 ◽  
pp. 0 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shelley Trower
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Physical World ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Optical Instruments ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Human Nervous System

Abstract This essay examines how the Aeolian harp functions as a model for the workings of the human nervous system as understood in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It sets out the scientific contexts – ranging from Hartleyan associationism to medical theories regarding the origin of life – that informed, in particular, two of Coleridge’s best-known poems: “The Aeolian Harp” and “Dejection: An Ode.” The essay provides a materialist account of mind, emphasising its inseparability from the body and physical world, as a corrective to the tendency in past criticism to overemphasize the transcendental aspect of the Romantic worldview and its attendant poetics. Further, it develops the insights of critics such as Jonathan Crary who have previously focused on optical instruments and vision by turning instead to a sonorous model for the self.

scholarly journals The origin of life: the first self-replicating molecules were nucleotides

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Ohsaka
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Clay Minerals ◽  
The Self ◽  
Rna Molecules ◽  
Simulated Environments ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Prebiotic Earth ◽  
Self Replication

Difficulties to synthesize RNA nucleotides from their subunits in modern labs under simulated environments leads us to propose a possible process for the synthesis by cross complimentary self-replication with help of clay minerals, which might be operated on prebiotic Earth. Clay minerals are known to be good catalysts and certainly existed on prebiotic Earth. The self-replication of RNA nucleotides (monomers) may be considered as the origin of potential self-replication of some extant RNA polymers, and also the reason for homochirality of RNA molecules.

How Did It All Begin?: The Self-Assembly of Organic Molecules and the Origin of Cellular Life

2002 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 179-194
Author(s):  
David W. Deamer
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
20Th Century ◽  
Self Assembly ◽  
Organic Molecules ◽  
Western Culture ◽  
The Self ◽  
Late 20Th Century ◽  
Cellular Life ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Origin Of Life

Movies are the myths of late-20th century western culture. Because of the power of films likeETto capture our imagination, we are more likely than past generations to accept the possibility that life exists elsewhere in our galaxy. Such a myth can be used to sketch the main themes of this chapter, which concern the origin of life on the Earth.

scholarly journals Getting Beyond the Toy Domain. Meditations on David Deamer’s “Assembling Life”

Life ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 18
Author(s):  
William Bains
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Assembling ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Ideas ◽  
Worth Reading ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Volcanic Islands ◽  
Hydrothermal Fields ◽  
Solar Astronomy

David Deamer has written another book, Assembling Life, on the origin of life. It is unapologetically polemic, presenting Deamer’s view that life originated in fresh water hydrothermal fields on volcanic islands on early Earth, arguing that this provided a unique environment not just for organic chemistry but for the self-assembling structure that drive that chemistry and form the basis of structure in life. It is worth reading, it is an advance in the field, but is it convincing? I argue that the Origin of Life field as a whole is unconvincing, generating results in Toy Domains that cannot be scaled to any real world scenario. I suggest that, by analogy with the history of artificial intelligence and solar astronomy, we need much more scale, and fundamentally new ideas, to take the field forward.

scholarly journals The origin of life: the first self-replicating molecules were nucleotides

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Ohsaka
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Clay Minerals ◽  
The Self ◽  
Rna Molecules ◽  
Simulated Environments ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Prebiotic Earth ◽  
Self Replication

Difficulties to synthesize RNA nucleotides from their subunits in modern labs under simulated environments leads us to propose a possible process for the synthesis by cross complimentary self-replication with help of clay minerals, which might be operated on prebiotic Earth. Clay minerals are known to be good catalysts and certainly existed on prebiotic Earth. The self-replication of RNA nucleotides (monomers) may be considered as the origin of potential self-replication of some extant RNA polymers, and also the reason for homochirality of RNA molecules.

scholarly journals Reafference and the origin of the self in early nervous system evolution

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gáspár Jékely ◽  
Peter Godfrey-Smith ◽  
Fred Keijzer
Keyword(s):  
Nervous System ◽  
Single Unit ◽  
The Body ◽  
Corollary Discharge ◽  
The Self ◽  
Whole Body ◽  
Flow Sensing ◽  
Nervous System Evolution ◽  
Body Motility ◽  
Body Self

Discussions of the function of early nervous systems usually focus on a causal flow from sensors to effectors, by which an animal coordinates its actions with exogenous changes in its environment. We propose, instead, that much early sensing was reafferent; it was responsive to the consequences of the animal's own actions. We distinguish two general categories of reafference – translocational and deformational – and use these to survey the distribution of several often-neglected forms of sensing, including gravity sensing, flow sensing, and proprioception. We discuss sensing of these kinds in sponges, ctenophores, placozoans, cnidarians and bilaterians. Reafference is ubiquitous, as ongoing action, especially whole-body motility, will almost inevitably influence the senses. Corollary discharge – a pathway or circuit by which an animal tracks its own actions and their reafferent consequences – is not a necessary feature of reafferent sensing but a later- evolving mechanism. We also argue for the importance of reafferent sensing to the evolution of the body-self, a form of organization that enables an animal to sense and act as a single unit.

A biointerface effect on the self-assembly of ribonucleic acids: a possible mechanism of RNA polymerisation in the self-replication cycle

Nanoscale ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 6691-6698 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noriyoshi Arai ◽  
Yusei Kobayashi ◽  
Kenji Yasuoka
Keyword(s):  
Cell Membrane ◽  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Self Assembly ◽  
Replication Cycle ◽  
The Self ◽  
Primitive Earth ◽  
Ribonucleic Acids ◽  
Bulk System ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Self Replication

The self-assembly was found to be more favoured in a vesicle-cell membrane, rather than in the bulk system. The result will contribute to a better understanding of the origin of life on the primitive Earth.

scholarly journals ORIGIN OF FEAR, ITS CLASSIFICATION AND INFLUENCE ON HUMAN

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
pp. 300-303
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Panchuk ◽  
Roman Samchuk
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Nervous System ◽  
The Body ◽  
Human Nervous System

In this article, the meaning of such a phenomenon as "fear" was determined, the classification of fear was made, and its effect on the body, mental health and the human nervous system was analyzed.

Sensitive limit

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mechthild Fend
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
French Revolution ◽  
Human Body ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Self ◽  
Distinctive Features ◽  
Late Eighteenth Century ◽  
French Art ◽  
Late Eighteenth ◽  
Definition Of

This chapter focuses on the significance of skin in neoclassical art and aesthetics. The most distinctive features of neoclassicism - an emphasis on the contour and a preference for more finished surfaces - are understood as elements crucial for the visual formation and understanding of the human body, its surface and borderlines. The culture of neoclassicism, extending well beyond the realm of art and art discourse, was generally characterised by a heightened concern with the shaping of the body and the safeguarding of its boundaries. Skin as the body's physical demarcation, was increasingly perceived not merely as an envelope and organ, but as the boundary of the self. The chapter considers the new attention to skin and contour in late eighteenth-century French art discourse, in particular in Watelet's and Levesque's Dictionnaire des beaux-arts. It equally looks at the discussion of membranes and the definition of skin as ‘sensitive limit‘ in the works of anatomist Xavier Bichat and analyses a set of portraits by Jacques-Louis David painted in the aftermath of the French Revolution.

The Tempo and mode(S) of Prebiotic Evolution

1997 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 419-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonio Lazcano
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Organic Compounds ◽  
Biological Evolution ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Early Diversification ◽  
Time Period ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
History Of ◽  
Widespread Phenomenon ◽  
The Origin Of Life

AbstractDifferent current ideas on the origin of life are critically examined. Comparison of the now fashionable FeS/H2S pyrite-based autotrophic theory of the origin of life with the heterotrophic viewpoint suggest that the later is still the most fertile explanation for the emergence of life. However, the theory of chemical evolution and heterotrophic origins of life requires major updating, which should include the abandonment of the idea that the appearance of life was a slow process involving billions of years. Stability of organic compounds and the genetics of bacteria suggest that the origin and early diversification of life took place in a time period of the order of 10 million years. Current evidence suggest that the abiotic synthesis of organic compounds may be a widespread phenomenon in the Galaxy and may have a deterministic nature. However, the history of the biosphere does not exhibits any obvious trend towards greater complexity or «higher» forms of life. Therefore, the role of contingency in biological evolution should not be understimated in the discussions of the possibilities of life in the Universe.

Photochemical Evolution of Interstellar/Precometary Organic Material

1997 ◽  
Vol 161 ◽  
pp. 23-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis J. Allamandola ◽  
Max P. Bernstein ◽  
Scott A. Sandford
Keyword(s):  
Origin Of Life ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Complex Species ◽  
Infrared Observations ◽  
Interstellar Ice ◽  
Polycyclic Aromatic ◽  
Ultraviolet Photolysis ◽  
The Origin Of Life ◽  
Simple Molecules ◽  
Complex Organic

AbstractInfrared observations, combined with realistic laboratory simulations, have revolutionized our understanding of interstellar ice and dust, the building blocks of comets. Since comets are thought to be a major source of the volatiles on the primative earth, their organic inventory is of central importance to questions concerning the origin of life. Ices in molecular clouds contain the very simple molecules H2O, CH3OH, CO, CO2, CH4, H2, and probably some NH3and H2CO, as well as more complex species including nitriles, ketones, and esters. The evidence for these, as well as carbonrich materials such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), microdiamonds, and amorphous carbon is briefly reviewed. This is followed by a detailed summary of interstellar/precometary ice photochemical evolution based on laboratory studies of realistic polar ice analogs. Ultraviolet photolysis of these ices produces H2, H2CO, CO2, CO, CH4, HCO, and the moderately complex organic molecules: CH3CH2OH (ethanol), HC(= O)NH2(formamide), CH3C(= O)NH2(acetamide), R-CN (nitriles), and hexamethylenetetramine (HMT, C6H12N4), as well as more complex species including polyoxymethylene and related species (POMs), amides, and ketones. The ready formation of these organic species from simple starting mixtures, the ice chemistry that ensues when these ices are mildly warmed, plus the observation that the more complex refractory photoproducts show lipid-like behavior and readily self organize into droplets upon exposure to liquid water suggest that comets may have played an important role in the origin of life.

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