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Muhammad Zakky Nurrachman posted an update 7 years, 6 months ago
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THE PHYSICO-CHEMICAL MECHAN-
ISM OF MUTATION A-ND
EVOLUTION
IT is the general rule in biology’ that
descendants resemble parents, and that a
parent organism can not pass on to offspring
a factor which the parent did not receive from
the germ-plasm of its immediate progenitors.
Many apparent exceptions to this general rule
have been traced to the existence in the parent
gametes of recessive factors, which, while sup-
pressed in the parent, may be liberated again
in the offspring. Whether we accept the view
of Darwin that large differences can represent
the summation of small differences, or the more
probable view of Bateson and others, that mu-
tation or variation is a definite physiological
event, no satisfactory explanation has been
given as to the origin or source of these excep-
tions to the general rule of resemblance,
although they constitute the steps by which
evolution haltingly proceeds.
The crying need that we must find a chem-
ical, physical or physico-chemical basis for
mutation or variation has been voiced by many.
Thus in his address before the British Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science (Aus-
tralia, 1914, reprinted in Smithsonian Report,
1915, pp. 359-394), Sir William Bateson says:
“Every theory of evolution must be such as
to accord with the facts of physics and chem-
istry, a primary necessity to which our prede-
cessors paid small heed. … Of the physics
and chemistry of life we know next to nothing.
Somehow the characters of living things are
bound up in properties of colloids, and are
largely determined by the chemical powers of
enzymes, but the study of these classes of
matter has only just begun. Living things are
found by simple experiment to have powers
undreamt of, and who knows what may be
behind?”
Recently R. S. Lillie1 (SCIENCE, 51, 525,
1920) has stressed the importance of physico-
chemical investigation of protoplasm, and
Alexander Forbes (.SCIENCE, 52, 331, 1920) has
called for closer cooperation between physicists
and biologists in attacking biological problems.
An attempt will be made here to outline cer-
tain basic physico-chemical principles which
affect the formation, development, growth and
reproduction of living things, and to point out
how it is possible for variation in some of the
factors therein involved to account for im-
portant and transmissible variations or muta-
tions in individual organisms.
At the outset let it be stated that no mys-
terious or special “vital force” will be evoked,
but that the well-known forces that control
inanimate matter seem quite sufficient for the
purpose.
In nature, both animate and inanimate, the
following basic factors tend to produce sym-
metrical orientation or aggregation: (1)
Crystallization; (2) Diffusion, as in the forma-
tion of Liesegang’s rings, agate, etc.; (3) Elec-
tric or magnetic fields of force; (4) Harmoni-
ous vibration as of air, water, etc. We here
disregard mere chance and the conscious ar-
rangement by man.
1 See also Lillie’s interesting papers in Biolog-
ical Bulletin, 1917-1919, and Scientific Monthly,
February, 1922.
ical, physical or physico-chemical basis for
mutation or variation has been voiced by many.
Thus in his address before the British Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science (Aus-
tralia, 1914, reprinted in Smithsonian Report,
1915, pp. 359-394), Sir William Bateson says:
“Every theory of evolution must be such as
to accord with the facts of physics and chem-
istry, a primary necessity to which our prede-
cessors paid small heed. … Of the physics
and chemistry of life we know next to nothing.
Somehow the characters of living things are
bound up in properties of colloids, and are
largely determined by the chemical powers of
enzymes, but the study of these classes of
matter has only just begun. Living things are
found by simple experiment to have powers
undreamt of, and who knows what may be
behind?”
Recently R. S. Lillie1 (SCIENCE, 51, 525,
1920) has stressed the importance of physico-
chemical investigation of protoplasm, and
Alexander Forbes (.SCIENCE, 52, 331, 1920) has
called for closer cooperation between physicists
and biologists in attacking biological problems.
An attempt will be made here to outline cer-
tain basic physico-chemical principles which
affect the formation, development, growth and
reproduction of living things, and to point out
how it is possible for variation in some of the
factors therein involved to account for im-
portant and transmissible variations or muta-
tions in individual organisms.
At the outset let it be stated that no mys-
terious or special “vital force” will be evoked,
but that the well-known forces that control
inanimate matter seem quite sufficient for the
purpose.
In nature, both animate and inanimate, the
following basic factors tend to produce sym-
metrical orientation or ag