- MUNICH, Germany (Reuters)
- When Albert Einstein developed his first blueprints of the physical world
that would revolutionize science, he worked as a patents clerk, finding
the profession perfect for pondering physics.
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- It is from a similar perch that another German, Guenter
Waechtershaeuser, 62, has developed a radical new theory about how life
developed on Earth, setting off vigorous debate and a race to recreate
the process in a laboratory.
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- The core question facing origin-of-life scientists is
how did the basic chemicals of the early Earth become living cells that
could replicate and evolve?
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- A patents attorney with a doctorate in chemistry, Waechtershaeuser
has challenged conventional wisdom by arguing that mainstream scientists
have been looking in the wrong places to understand the creation of life.
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- ``It is by definition one of the most complex problems
there is,'' he told Reuters. ``It is four billion years in the past. You
can't observe it. You can only theorize about it. But the theories are
so inadequate that we need new theories.''
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- Before Waechtershaeuser's writings, the conventional
wisdom on life's origin was the ``soup theory.'' The model said life originally
emerged in a ``primordial soup'' of water mixing with basic gases in the
Earth's early atmosphere.
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- Waechtershaeuser argues that the likelihood of life emerging
randomly in such a watery solution must be low because the chemicals can
move in three dimensions -- up, down, or to either side.
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- ``It was clear to me this was impossible,'' he said.
``There are so many possibilities that it can be lost in the infinity of
chaos. But once you reduce the dimensions it becomes very easy.''
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- His theory is that life evolved on a flat, more stable
area in two dimensions where mineral surfaces facilitate chemical processes
leading to living cells. Such a process could take place on the ocean floor
near undersea volcanic vents, a hotter environment than previously considered
by most scientists.
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- ``In my theory, everything was generated on the surface,''
he said. ``It doesn't take a long time, it happens lickety-split.''
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- Waechtershaeuser published his theory in 1988 and the
ideas gradually gained serious acceptance, especially after 1997 laboratory
experiments supported parts of his theoretical work.
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- ``He is surely a genius,'' said Claudia Huber, a Munich
Technical University researcher who performed those experiments.
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- IDEAS AND OBSESSION
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- How could a mere amateur stir up one of the most complex
areas of science?
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- Waechtershaeuser says that as an outsider he could think
differently and look at the big picture, an approach he credits to Austrian-born,
British philosopher Karl Popper.
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- He says one cannot force new ideas, but rather they come
unexpectedly while he is doing other work.
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- ``You have to be very, very busy,'' he said. ``There
is nothing more hostile to new insights than being idle on the beach.
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- Since the origin of life question seized him in the mid-1980s,
Waechtershaeuser, married to an American and with no children, has devoted
his free time to science.
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- ``After that I stopped skiing and doing things that were
fun and worked all these ideas out,'' said Waechtershaeuser.
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- At the same time, he has no intention of quitting as
a patents attorney, a job he has done for 30 years.
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- ``It's my profession. I love it, I would never give it
up. I enjoy the greatest amount of academic freedom anybody ever had.''
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- Of course, others have also seen the charms of patent
work.
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- ``It is certainly unusual, though it reminds us of the
precedent of Albert Einstein who wrote his groundbreaking papers on relativity
and quantum theory while working in a patents office,'' said Jeremy Bailey
of the Anglo-Australian Observatory in New South Wales, Australia, a scientist
in the field.
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- Waechtershaeuser says he shares Einstein's assessment
of his time from 1900 to 1907 in the Swiss patent office.
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- ``It gave me the opportunity to think about physics,''
Einstein wrote years later. ``Moreover, a practical profession is a salvation
for a man of my type; an academic career compels a young man to scientific
production, and only strong characters can resist the temptation of superficial
analysis.''
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- STIRRING CONTROVERSY
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- Waechtershaeuser's theories have stirred up resistance
and even anger from some scientists.
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- Jeffrey Bada, director of NASA's exobiology research
center at the University of California at San Diego, is one skeptic.
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- ``Guenter and I, among others, have a major disagreement
about the significance of his research,'' he said. ``Today it seems that
anyone with 'outside of the box' ideas about the origins of life gets a
lot of attention.
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- ``It may mislead some scientists and non-specialists,
but for those of us entrenched in the field of the origin of life the Holy
Grail is finding plausible candidates for the first self-replicating entity,''
he said. ``Guenter's research is not helping solve this problem.''
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- Yet many find intriguing ideas in Waechtershaeuser's
work.
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- ``I believe that Waechtershaeuser's theories have opened
up many people's eyes to a new way of looking at the problem,'' said George
Cody of the Geophysical Laboratory at the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
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- ``Using this concept, Waechtershaeuser has created a
spectacular framework of reactions that connect extant biochemistry to,
perhaps, the roots of life,'' said Cody, who has studied chemical reactions
that could happen near deep-sea volcanic vents.
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- The German patent attorney's work also exposes him to
many areas of science useful in coming up with wide-ranging ideas.
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- ``Waechtershaeuser's field makes him aware of an enormously
broad range of scientific research,'' Cody said. ``This places him in a
good position to create a theory via synthesis of seemingly disparate pieces
of information.''
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- LAB TESTS
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- Back at Munich Technical University, behind an outer
door warning visitors of possible radioactivity, Huber is trying to replicate
what might have happened four billion years ago in a laboratory using Waechtershaeuser's
theories.
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- She seals three jars holding mineral ingredients colored
light green, dark green and red. She injects a second chemical into each
jar through a long needle, and each instantly turns black as it transforms
into a more complex compound.
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- She then heats the jars to later study the results for
changes that have occurred.
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- ``Up until now this is only chemistry, but eventually
it should end up being something more than chemistry,'' Huber said. ''From
chemistry one must make the building blocks of life.
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- ``So far no one has been able to create life in a laboratory,''
she said. ``It will take more than 20 years more.''
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- Even if a lab could create living cells from nature's
basic ingredients, it is not clear whether evolution of life would always
repeat as it has on Earth. ``If we kill intelligent life, it may never
evolve elsewhere,'' Waechtershaeuser said. ``It took four billion years
for life to evolve.''
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- And Waechtershaeuser is prepared to be proven wrong.
``I have always had doubts. I still have doubts,'' he said. ``The origin
of life still isn't solved.''
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- ``I don't think my theory is the be all and end all in
this field,'' he said. ``The most one can hope for is if one is proved
wrong in a fascinating way.''
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