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The DNA sequencing of a series of living organisms has elucidated
many biological problems. But the internal atomic and electronic
evolution of DNA remains to be mapped in detail. RNA and DNA now
appear to be the prime determinants of biological evolution leading
to the sudden appearance of novel organism structures and functions
that emerge 'ready made' as a surprise to the organism. This has
been demonstrated by the manipulation of genes that led to the
sudden production of additional complete wings and legs in flies
and birds. The study of this internal atomic construction of
macromolecules is being investigated at the large electron
accelerators such as the MAX IV Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory,
Lund University, Sweden.The periodicity of the chemical elements is
well known from its iconic Table. Significantly, this periodicity
can now be seen to extend to the properties of living organisms.
Biological properties as different as: flight, vision, luminescence
and regeneration, as well as others, show unexpectedly periodic
emergence. They resurface, without previous announcement, in most
unrelated plant and animal families and they emerge irrespective of
whether the organism is a simple invertebrate or a most complex
mammal.Moreover, this periodicity does not necessarily start at the
cell or DNA levels but appears initially in crystals and minerals,
where it is shown to be a pure atomic and electronic process, e.g.
in luminescence and regeneration.The assembled molecular evidence
led to the construction of Periodic Tables of living organisms,
placing them in a position comparable to the periodicity of the
chemical elements. Surprisingly, there are striking resemblances
between the periodicities of the chemical elements and those of
living organisms. In addition, the two types of Tables increase our
insight into the events directing atomic evolution since the
periodic law established in chemical elements turns out to be
applicable to the periodicity of living organisms. The new Periodic
Tables introduce a predictive capacity in biological evolution that
before was hardly contemplated.Eric Scerri, from the Department of
Chemistry and Biochemistry, California University, Los Angeles, who
is the Author of the book 'The Periodic Table. Its Story and its
Significance', Oxford University Press, stated in an e-mail that
'Professor Lima-de-Faria's book is wonderful and a pioneering
work'.
The DNA sequencing of a series of living organisms has elucidated
many biological problems. But the internal atomic and electronic
evolution of DNA remains to be mapped in detail. RNA and DNA now
appear to be the prime determinants of biological evolution leading
to the sudden appearance of novel organism structures and functions
that emerge 'ready made' as a surprise to the organism. This has
been demonstrated by the manipulation of genes that led to the
sudden production of additional complete wings and legs in flies
and birds. The study of this internal atomic construction of
macromolecules is being investigated at the large electron
accelerators such as the MAX IV Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory,
Lund University, Sweden.The periodicity of the chemical elements is
well known from its iconic Table. Significantly, this periodicity
can now be seen to extend to the properties of living organisms.
Biological properties as different as: flight, vision, luminescence
and regeneration, as well as others, show unexpectedly periodic
emergence. They resurface, without previous announcement, in most
unrelated plant and animal families and they emerge irrespective of
whether the organism is a simple invertebrate or a most complex
mammal.Moreover, this periodicity does not necessarily start at the
cell or DNA levels but appears initially in crystals and minerals,
where it is shown to be a pure atomic and electronic process, e.g.
in luminescence and regeneration.The assembled molecular evidence
led to the construction of Periodic Tables of living organisms,
placing them in a position comparable to the periodicity of the
chemical elements. Surprisingly, there are striking resemblances
between the periodicities of the chemical elements and those of
living organisms. In addition, the two types of Tables increase our
insight into the events directing atomic evolution since the
periodic law established in chemical elements turns out to be
applicable to the periodicity of living organisms. The new Periodic
Tables introduce a predictive capacity in biological evolution that
before was hardly contemplated.Eric Scerri, from the Department of
Chemistry and Biochemistry, California University, Los Angeles, who
is the Author of the book 'The Periodic Table. Its Story and its
Significance', Oxford University Press, stated in an e-mail that
'Professor Lima-de-Faria's book is wonderful and a pioneering
work'.
When examined carefully at the molecular level, the chromosome
turns out to have created its own private world full of tricks,
back door exits and novel solutions. This "folly" makes it an
untamed innovator. Geneticists have been bewildered for decades.
What kind of creature was actually the chromosome? Was it plastic,
changing by innumerous rearrangements and mutations all the time;
or was it a rigid structure which has preserved its basic
organisation and functions since the dawn of the cell? It is this
conflicting state that seems to be at the base of its "folly".
Perplexed by this behavior, cell biologists have called it a
junkyard and even the ultimate parasite. Moreover, the chromosome
has been regarded as a passive cell organelle prone to random
mutations and subjected to the mercy of selection.The latest
molecular information discloses a radically different picture in
which the chromosome appears as an independent molecular structure
that follows its own path. It does not obey gravity, randomness,
selection or magnetism.By anchoring the chromosome's contradictory
behavior on molecular processes directed by atomic self-assembly,
Lima-de-Faria expands a novel view of the chromosome with
unexpected implications for genetics, evolution and physics.This
timely book contains the latest information on the molecular
organization of the chromosome. The information is original and is
presented in an unorthodox way, while carefully chosen elucidating
and attractive figures serve to add clarity to the subject treated.
Thus, the book will add greatly to the general debate on the
evolution of living organisms, and will be of particular interest
to those in the biotechnological field.
New concepts arise in science when apparently unrelated fields of
knowledge are put together in a coherent way. The recent results in
molecular biology allow to explain the emergence of body patterns
in animals that before could not be understood by zoologists. There
are no ”fancy curiosities” in nature. Every pattern is a
product of a molecular cascade originating in genes and a living
organism arises from the collaboration of these genes with the
outer physical environment. Tropical fishes are as startling in
their colors and geometric circles as peacocks. Tortoises are
covered with the most regular triangles, squares and concentric
circles that can be green, brown or yellow. Parallel scarlet bands
are placed side by side of black ones along the body of snakes.
Zebras and giraffes have patterns which are lessons in geometry,
with their transversal and longitudinal stripes, their circles and
other geometric figures. Monkeys, like the mandrills, have a
spectacularly colored face scarlet nose with blue parallel
flanges and yellow beard. All this geometry turns out to be highly
molecular. The genes are many and have been DNA sequenced. Besides
they not only deal with the coloration of the body but with the
development of the brain and the embryonic process. A precise
scenario of molecular events unravels in the vertebrates. It may
seem far-fetched, but the search for the origin of this geometry
made it mandatory to study the evolution of matter and the origin
of the brain. It turned out that matter from its onset is pervaded
by geometry and that the brain is also a prisoner of this ordered
construction. Moreover, the brain is capable of altering the body
geometry and the geometry of the environment changes the brain.
Nothing spectacular occurred when the brain arrived in evolution.
Not only it came after the eye, which had already established
itself long ago, but it had a modest origin. It started from
sensory cells on the skin that later aggregated into clusters of
neurons that formed ganglia. It also became evident that pigment
cells, that decide the establishment of the body pattern, originate
from the same cell population as neurons (the neural crest cells).
This is a most revealing result because it throws light on the
power that the brain has to rapidly redirect the coloration of the
body and to change its pattern. Recent experiments demonstrate how
the brain changes the body geometry at will and within seconds, an
event that could be hardly conceived earlier. Moreover, this change
is not accidental it is related to the surrounding environment and
is also used as a mating strategy. Chameleons know how to do it as
well as flat fishes and octopuses. No one would have dared to think
that the brain had its own geometry. How could the external
geometry of solids or other figures of our environment be
apprehended by neurons if these had no architecture of their own?
Astonishing was that the so called ”simple cells”, in the
neurons of the primary visual cortex, responded to a bar of light
with an axis of orientation that corresponded to the axis of the
cell’s receptive field. We tend to consider our brain a reliable
organ. But how reliable is it? From the beginning the brain is
obliged to transform reality. Brain imagery involves: form, color,
motion and sleep. Unintentionally these results led to unexpected
philosophical implications. Plato’s pivotal concept that
”forms” exist independently of the material world is reversed.
Atoms have been considered to be imaginary for 2,000 years but at
present they can be photographed, one by one, with electron
microscopes. The reason why geometry has led the way in this
inquiry is due to the fact that where there is geometry there is
utter simplicity coupled to rigorous order that underlies the
phenomenon where it is recognized. Order allows variation but
imposes at the same time a canalization that is patent in what we
call evolution.
After having read this book you will never see birds in the same
way again. The unexpected patterns displayed by a bird's body have
been seen as bizarre events that demanded little attention or were
described as 'amazing curiosities'. None of these surprising
features seem to be fortuitous. They appear to be an integral part
of a rigid order and a coherent geometry, which is directed by
simple gene interactions and molecular cascades occurring at
various cellular levels, and at different times, during the
organism's development. A novel geometry unfolds in front of your
eyes, giving the body configurations another meaning. Lima-de-Faria
is Professor Emeritus of Molecular Cytogenetics at Lund University,
Lund, Sweden. This is his sixth book dealing with the molecular
organization of the chromosome and its implications for the
understanding of the mechanisms responsible for biological
evolution.
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