Alexander Ivanovich Oparin (; – 21 April 1980) was a

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...

notable for his theories about the

origin of life Abiogenesis is the natural process by which life arises from abiotic component, non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds. The prevailing scientific hypothesis is that the transition from non-living to organism, living entities on ...

and for his book ''The Origin of Life''. He also studied the biochemistry of material processing by plants and

enzyme An enzyme () is a protein that acts as a biological catalyst by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrate (chemistry), substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different mol ...

reactions in

plant cell Plant cells are the cells present in Viridiplantae, green plants, photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Their distinctive features include primary cell walls containing cellulose, hemicelluloses and pectin, the presence of plastids ...

s. He showed that many

food production The food industry is a complex, global network of diverse businesses that supplies most of the food consumed by the World population, world's population. The food industry today has become highly diversified, with manufacturing ranging from sm ...

processes were based on

biocatalysis Biocatalysis refers to the use of living (biological) systems or their parts to speed up ( catalyze) chemical reactions. In biocatalytic processes, natural catalysts, such as enzymes, perform chemical transformations on organic compounds. Both en ...

and developed the foundations for industrial

biochemistry Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...

in the USSR.

Life

Oparin was born in

Uglich Uglich ( rus, У́глич, p=ˈuɡlʲɪtɕ) is a historic town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, located on the Volga River. Population: History The city was first documented in 1148 as ''Ugliche Pole'' (''Corner Field''). The town's name is thou ...

in 1894 into a merchant family. He and his parents soon moved to Kokayevo, a nearby village. Oparin had an older brother, , who became an economist. Oparin graduated from the

Moscow State University Moscow State University (MSU), officially M. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University,. is a public university, public research university in Moscow, Russia. The university includes 15 research institutes, 43 faculties, more than 300 departments, a ...

in 1917 and became a professor of biochemistry there in 1927. Many of his early papers were about plant enzymes and their role in

metabolism Metabolism (, from ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run cellular processes; the co ...

. His first experimental studies were devoted to the chemistry of respiration. In them, he showed that chlorogenic acid is an essential component of redox reactions in the cell. In 1924 he put forward a hypothesis suggesting that

life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

on Earth developed through a gradual chemical evolution of

carbon Carbon () is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalence, tetravalent—meaning that its atoms are able to form up to four covalent bonds due to its valence shell exhibiting 4 ...

-based

molecule A molecule is a group of two or more atoms that are held together by Force, attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions that satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemi ...

s in the Earth's primordial soup. In 1935, along with academician Aleksei Bach, he founded the Biochemistry Institute of the

Soviet Academy of Sciences The Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union was the highest scientific institution of the Soviet Union from 1925 to 1991. It united the country's leading scientists and was subordinated directly to the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union (un ...

. In 1939, Oparin became a Corresponding Member of the Academy, and, in 1946, a full member. In 1937, he organized the Department of Technical Biochemistry at the Moscow Technological Institute of Food Industry. In 1940s and 1950s, Oparin supported the theories of

Trofim Lysenko Trofim Denisovich Lysenko (; , ; 20 November 1976) was a Soviet agronomist and scientist.''An ill-educated agronomist with huge ambitions, Lysenko failed to become a real scientist, but greatly succeeded in exposing of the “bourgeois enemies o ...

and Olga Lepeshinskaya, who made claims about "the origin of cells from noncellular matter". "Taking the

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...

line" helped advance his career. However, according to cytologist : From 1942 to 1960, Oparin headed the Department of Plant Biochemistry at Moscow State University, where he gave lectures on general biochemistry, technical biochemistry, and special courses on enzymology and the problem of the origin of life. In 1970, he was elected President of the International Society for the Study of the Origins of Life. Oparin was one of the academicians of the USSR Academy of Sciences who signed a letter from scientists to the newspaper ''

Pravda ''Pravda'' ( rus, Правда, p=ˈpravdə, a=Ru-правда.ogg, 'Truth') is a Russian broadsheet newspaper, and was the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, when it was one of the most in ...

'' in 1973 condemning "the behavior of Academician A.D. Sakharov." The letter accused Sakharov of having "made a number of statements discrediting the political system, foreign and domestic policies of the Soviet Union," and the academics assessed his human rights activities as "discrediting the honor and dignity of the Soviet scientist." Oparin died in Moscow on 21 April 1980, and was interred in

Novodevichy Cemetery Novodevichy Cemetery () is a cemetery in Moscow. It lies next to the southern wall of the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist site. History The cemetery was designed by Ivan Mashkov and inaugurated ...

in Moscow. Oparin became

Hero of Socialist Labour The Hero of Socialist Labour () was an Title of honor, honorific title in the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries from 1938 to 1991. It represented the highest degree of distinction in the USSR and was awarded for exceptional achievem ...

in 1969, received the

Lenin Prize The Lenin Prize (, ) was one of the most prestigious awards of the Soviet Union for accomplishments relating to science, literature, arts, architecture, and technology. It was originally created on June 23, 1925, and awarded until 1934. During ...

in 1974, and was awarded the

Lomonosov Gold Medal The Lomonosov Gold Medal ( ''Bol'shaya zolotaya medal' imeni M. V. Lomonosova''), named after Russian scientist and polymath Mikhail Lomonosov, is awarded each year since 1959 for outstanding achievements in the natural sciences and the humaniti ...

in 1979 "for outstanding achievements in biochemistry". He was also a five-time recipient of the

Order of Lenin The Order of Lenin (, ) was an award named after Vladimir Lenin, the leader of the October Revolution. It was established by the Central Executive Committee on 6 April 1930. The order was the highest civilian decoration bestowed by the Soviet ...

Theory of the origin of life

Although Oparin's started out reviewing various

panspermia Panspermia () is the hypothesis that life exists throughout the universe, distributed by space dust, meteoroids, asteroids, comets, and planetoids, as well as by spacecraft carrying unintended contamination by microorganisms,Forward planetary c ...

theories, including those of

Hermann von Helmholtz Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (; ; 31 August 1821 – 8 September 1894; "von" since 1883) was a German physicist and physician who made significant contributions in several scientific fields, particularly hydrodynamic stability. The ...

and William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), he was primarily interested in how life began. As early as 1922, he asserted that: # There is no fundamental difference between a living organism and lifeless matter. The complex combination of manifestations and properties characteristic of life must have arisen as a part of the process of the evolution of matter. # Taking into account the recent discovery of

methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The abundance of methane on Earth makes ...

in the atmospheres of

Jupiter Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the List of Solar System objects by size, largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a Jupiter mass, mass more than 2.5 times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined a ...

and the other giant planets, Oparin suggested that the infant Earth had possessed a strongly

reducing atmosphere A reducing atmosphere is an atmosphere in which oxidation is prevented by the absence of oxygen and other oxidizing gases or vapours, and which may contain actively reductant gases such as hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane and hydrogen sulfide ...

, containing methane, ammonia,

hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...

and water vapor. In his opinion, these were the raw materials for the evolution of life. # In Oparin's formulation, there were first only simple solutions of

organic matter Organic matter, organic material or natural organic matter is the large source of carbon-based compounds found within natural and engineered, terrestrial, and aquatic environments. It is matter composed of organic compounds that have come fro ...

, the behavior of which was governed by the properties of their component atoms and the arrangement of these atoms into a molecular structure. Gradually though, he said, the resulting growth and increased complexity of molecules brought new properties into being and a new colloidal-chemical order developed as a successor to more simple relationships between and among organic chemicals. These newer properties were determined by the interactions of these more complex molecules. # Oparin posited that this process brought biological orderliness into prominence. According to Oparin, competition, speed of cell growth, survival of the fittest, struggle for existence and, finally,

natural selection Natural selection is the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. It is a key mechanism of evolution, the change in the Heredity, heritable traits characteristic of a population over generation ...

determined the form of material organization characteristic of modern-day living things. Oparin outlined a way he thought that basic organic chemicals might have formed into microscopic localized systems, from which primitive living things could have developed. He cited work done by de Jong and Sidney W. Fox on coacervates and research by others, including himself, into organic chemicals which, in solution, might spontaneously form droplets and layers. Oparin suggested that different types of coacervates could have formed in the Earth's primordial ocean and been subject to a selection process that led, eventually, to life. While Oparin himself was unable to conduct experiments to test any of these ideas, later researchers tried. In 1953, Stanley Miller attempted an experiment to investigate whether chemical self-organization could have been possible on pre-historic Earth. The

Miller–Urey experiment The Miller–Urey experiment, or Miller experiment, was an experiment in chemical synthesis carried out in 1952 that simulated the conditions thought at the time to be present in the Prebiotic atmosphere, atmosphere of the early, prebiotic Earth ...

introduced heat (to provide reflux) and electrical energy (sparks, to simulate

lightning Lightning is a natural phenomenon consisting of electrostatic discharges occurring through the atmosphere between two electrically charged regions. One or both regions are within the atmosphere, with the second region sometimes occurring on ...

) into a mixture of several simple components that would be present in a reducing atmosphere. Within a fairly short period of time a variety of familiar organic compounds, such as

amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although over 500 amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the 22 α-amino acids incorporated into proteins. Only these 22 a ...

s, were synthesised. The compounds that formed were somewhat more complex than the molecules present at the beginning of the experiment.

The influence of dialectical materialism on Oparin's theory

The Communist Party's official interpretation of

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

dialectical materialism Dialectical materialism is a materialist theory based upon the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels that has found widespread applications in a variety of philosophical disciplines ranging from philosophy of history to philosophy of scien ...

, fit Oparin's speculation on the origins of life as 'a flow, an exchange, a dialectical unity'. This notion was re-enforced by Oparin's association with Lysenko.

Major works

* Oparin, A. I. ''Proiskhozhdenie zhizni''. Moscow: Izd. Moskovskii Rabochii, 1924. ** English translations: *** Oparin, A. I. "The origin of life", translation by Ann Synge. In: Bernal, J. D. (ed.), ''The origin of life'', Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1967, p. 199–234
GoogleValencia University
*** Oparin, A. I. ''The Origin and Development of Life'' (NASA TTF-488). Washington: D.C.L GPO, 1968. * Oparin, A. I. ''Vozniknovenie zhizni na zemle''. Moscow: Izd. Akad. Nauk SSSR, 1936. ** English translations: *** Oparin, A. I. ''The Origin of Life'', 1st ed., New York: Macmillan, 1938. *** Oparin, A. I. ''The Origin of Life'', 2nd ed., New York: Dover, 1953, reprinted in 2003
Google
*** Oparin, A. I. ''The Origin of Life on the Earth'', 3rd ed., New York: Academic Press, 1957
BHL
* Oparin, A., Fesenkov, V. ''Life in the Universe''. Moscow: USSR Academy of Sciences publisher, 3rd edition, 1956. ** English translation: Oparin, A., and V. Fesenkov. ''Life in the Universe''. New York: Twayne Publishers (1961). * "The External Factors in Enzyme Interactions Within a Plant Cell" * "Life, Its Nature, Origin and Evolution" * "The History of the Theory of Genesis and Evolution of Life"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oparin, Alexander 1894 births 1980 deaths 20th-century biochemists People from Uglich Academic staff of the D. Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia Foreign members of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences Full Members of the USSR Academy of Sciences Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Moscow State University alumni Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1951–1955 Members of the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, 1955–1959 Heroes of Socialist Labour Kalinga Prize recipients Recipients of the Lenin Prize Recipients of the Lomonosov Gold Medal Recipients of the Order of Lenin Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour Evolutionary biologists Proceedings of the USSR Academy of Sciences editors Origin of life Russian biochemists Russian biologists Soviet biochemists Soviet biologists Burials at Novodevichy Cemetery

Life

Theory of the origin of life

The influence of dialectical materialism on Oparin's theory

Major works

See also

References