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  • Muhammad Zakky Nurrachman posted an update 7 years, 6 months ago

    ——————-JURNAL———————————-
    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