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Günter Wächtershäuser (born 1938 in 
Evolution of the First Metabolic Cycles.
''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'' 87, January 1990, 200–204 * The origin of life and its methodological challenge. ''J Theor Biol'' 187, 1997, 483–494.
In: ''Science'' 289(5483), 25. August 2000, S. 1307–1308
From pre-cells to Eukarya – a tale of two lipids.
In: ''Molecular Microbiology'' 47(1), January 2003, 13–22, doi:10.1046/j.1365-2958.2003.03267.x
From volcanic origins of chemoautotrophic life to Bacteria, Archaea and Eukarya.
In: ''Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences'' 361(1474), 29. October 2006, 1787–1808, doi:10.1098/rstb.2006.1904
The Place of RNA in the Origin and Early Evolution of the Genetic Machinery.
''Life'' 4, 19. December 2014, 1050–1091, doi:10.3390/life4041050
In Praise of Error.
In: ''Journal of Molecular Evolution'' 82, 14. January 2016, 75–80, doi:10.1007/s00239-015-9727-3
Gießen
Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univers ...
) is a German chemist
A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...
turned patent lawyer
A patent attorney is an Lawyer, attorney who has the specialized qualifications necessary for representing clients in obtaining patents and acting in all matters and procedures relating to patent law and practice, such as filing patent applications ...
who is widely known for his work on the origin of life
In biology, abiogenesis (from a- 'not' + Greek bios 'life' + genesis 'origin') or the origin of life is the natural process by which life has arisen from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds. The prevailing scientific hypothes ...
, and in particular his ''iron-sulfur world theory
Iron–sulfur proteins (or iron–sulphur proteins in British spelling) are proteins characterized by the presence of iron–sulfur clusters containing sulfide-linked di-, tri-, and tetrairon centers in variable oxidation states. Iron–sulfur cl ...
'', a theory that life on Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...
has hydrothermal
Hydrothermal circulation in its most general sense is the circulation of hot water (Ancient Greek ὕδωρ, ''water'',Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with th ...
origins. The hypothesis proposes that early life may have formed on the surface of iron sulfide
Iron sulfide or Iron sulphide can refer to range of chemical compounds composed of iron and sulfur.
Minerals
By increasing order of stability:
* Iron(II) sulfide, FeS
* Greigite, Fe3S4 (cubic)
* Pyrrhotite, Fe1−xS (where x = 0 to 0.2) (monocli ...
minerals, hence the name. It was developed by retrodiction
Retrodiction is the act of making a prediction about the past. It is also known as postdiction (but this should not be confused with the use of the term in criticisms of parapsychological research).
Activity
The activity of retrodiction (or po ...
from extant biochemistry in conjunction with chemical experiments. The theory is consistent with the hypothesis that life originated near seafloor hydrothermal vent
A hydrothermal vent is a fissure on the seabed from which geothermally heated water discharges. They are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart at mid-ocean ridges, ocean basins, and hotspot ...
s. He was encouraged and supported by science philosopher Karl R. Popper
Sir Karl Raimund Popper (28 July 1902 – 17 September 1994) was an Austrian-British philosopher, academic and social commentator. One of the 20th century's most influential philosophers of science, Popper is known for his rejection of the cl ...
to publish his ideas.
Biographical background
Wächtershäuser, a chemist by training, has been an international patent lawyer inMunich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
since 1970. He has published numerous articles in organic chemistry
Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, J.; ...
, genetic engineering
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including t ...
and patent law
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
, and has made contributions to evolutionary theory concerning the origins of perception and cognition, and the origin of life.
"Metabolism first"
One of the key ideas advanced by Wächtershäuser is that an early form ofmetabolism
Metabolism (, from el, μεταβολή ''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 cell ...
predated genetics
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar wor ...
. Metabolism here means a cycle of chemical reactions that produce energy in a form that can be harnessed by other processes. The idea is that once a primitive metabolic cycle was established, it began to produce ever more complex compounds. His model is known as the iron-sulfur world theory
Iron–sulfur proteins (or iron–sulphur proteins in British spelling) are proteins characterized by the presence of iron–sulfur clusters containing sulfide-linked di-, tri-, and tetrairon centers in variable oxidation states. Iron–sulfur cl ...
by analogy with the RNA world hypothesis
The RNA world is a hypothetical stage in the evolutionary history of life on Earth, in which self-replicating RNA molecules proliferated before the evolution of DNA and proteins. The term also refers to the hypothesis that posits the existence ...
.
Awards
In 1993, Wächtershäuser received the annual award of theBavarian Academy of Sciences
The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (german: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften) is an independent public institution, located in Munich. It appoints scholars whose research has contributed considerably to the increase of knowledg ...
and the following year he was made an honorary professor at the University of Regensburg
The University of Regensburg (german: link=no, Universität Regensburg) is a public research university located in the medieval city of Regensburg, Bavaria, a city that is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university was founded on 18 ...
. In 1999, Wächtershäuser received the Bonn
The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...
Chemistry Award and in 2008 he was made an adjunct professor
An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and
the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, however the genera ...
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States ...
.
Publications
Evolution of the First Metabolic Cycles.
''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'' 87, January 1990, 200–204 * The origin of life and its methodological challenge. ''J Theor Biol'' 187, 1997, 483–494.
In: ''Science'' 289(5483), 25. August 2000, S. 1307–1308
From pre-cells to Eukarya – a tale of two lipids.
In: ''Molecular Microbiology'' 47(1), January 2003, 13–22, doi:10.1046/j.1365-2958.2003.03267.x
From volcanic origins of chemoautotrophic life to Bacteria, Archaea and Eukarya.
In: ''Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences'' 361(1474), 29. October 2006, 1787–1808, doi:10.1098/rstb.2006.1904
The Place of RNA in the Origin and Early Evolution of the Genetic Machinery.
''Life'' 4, 19. December 2014, 1050–1091, doi:10.3390/life4041050
In Praise of Error.
In: ''Journal of Molecular Evolution'' 82, 14. January 2016, 75–80, doi:10.1007/s00239-015-9727-3
References