Alexander Ivanovich Oparin ' onMouseout='HidePop("34418")' href="http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Uglich">Uglich
Uglich is a historic town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, on the Volga River. Population: A local tradition dates the town's origins to 937. It was first documented in 1148 as Ugliche Pole...
,
RussiaRussia , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia . It is a semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
– April 21, 1980,
MoscowMoscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and ranks among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a...
) was a
SovietThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
biochemistBiochemistry is the study of the chemical processes in living organisms. It deals with the structure and function of cellular components such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids and other biomolecules....
notable for his contributions to the theory of the origin of life, and for his authorship of the book
The Origin of Life. He also studied the biochemistry of material processing by plants, and
enzymeEnzymes are proteins that catalyze chemical reactions. In enzymatic reactions, the molecules at the beginning of the process are called substrates, and the enzyme converts them into different molecules, called the products. Almost all processes in a biological cell need enzymes to occur at...
reactions in
plant cellPlant cells are eukaryotic cells that differ in several key respects from the cells of other eukaryotic organisms. Their distinctive features include:...
s. He showed that many food-production processes are based on
biocatalysisBiocatalysis is the use of natural catalysts, such as protein enzymes, to perform chemical transformations on organic compounds. Both enzymes that have been more or less isolated or enzymes still residing inside living cells are employed for this task....
and developed the foundations for
industrialAn industry is the manufacturing of a good or service within a category. Although industry is a broad term for any kind of economic production, in economics and urban planning industry is a synonym for the secondary sector, which is a type of economic activity involved in the manufacturing of raw...
biochemistryBiochemistry is the study of the chemical processes in living organisms. It deals with the structure and function of cellular components such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, nucleic acids and other biomolecules....
in the USSR.
Life
Oparin graduated from the
Moscow State UniversityM. V. Lomonosov Moscow State University , for a time the Lomonosov University or MSU , is the largest university in Russia. Founded in 1755, it also claims to be the oldest university in Russia and the tallest educational building in the world...
in 1917 and became a professor of biochemistry there in 1927. In 1924 he put forward a theory of life on Earth developing through gradual
chemical evolutionChemical evolution may refer to:*Nucleosynthesis, the creation of chemical elements in the universe either through the Big Bang, or supernovae*Abiogenesis, the transition from nonliving elements to living systems...
of
carbonCarbon is the chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds...
-based
moleculeA molecule is defined as an electrically neutral group of at least two atoms in a definite arrangement held together by very strong chemical bonds. Molecules are distinguished from polyatomic ions in this strict sense...
s in
primordial soup. In 1935, he along with academician Aleksei Bakh, founded the Biochemistry Institute by the USSR Academy of Sciences. In 1939 Oparin became a Corresponding Member of the USSR Academy of Sciences, and in 1946 - a full member of the Academy. In 1940s and 1950s he supported
pseudo-scientificPseudoscience is a methodology, belief, or practice that is claimed to be scientific, or that is made to appear to be scientific, but which does not adhere to an appropriate scientific methodology, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
theories of
Trofim LysenkoTrofim Denisovich Lysenko was a Ukrainian agronomist who was director of Soviet biology under Joseph Stalin...
and Olga Lepeshinskaya, who made claims about "the origin of cells from noncellular matter", and 'taking the
partyA political party described as a communist party includes those that advocate the application of the social principles of communism through a communist form of government. The name originates from the 1848 tract Manifesto of the Communist Party by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels...
line' helped his career . In 1970, he was elected President of the International Society for the Study of the Origins of Life. On his passing on April 21, 1980, he was interred in
Novodevichy CemeteryNovodevichy Cemetery is the most famous cemetery in Moscow, Russia, situated next to the World Heritage Site, the 16th-century Novodevichy Convent, which is the city's third most popular tourist site...
in
MoscowMoscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and ranks among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a...
.
Oparin became Hero of Socialist Labour in 1969, received the
Lenin PrizeThe Lenin Prize was one of the most prestigious awards of the USSR, presented to individuals for accomplishments relating to science, literature, arts, architecture, and technology. It was created on June 23 1925 and was awarded until 1934. During the period from 1935 to 1956, the Lenin Prize was...
in 1974 and was awarded the
Lomonosov Gold MedalThe Lomonosov Gold Medal, named after Russian scientist and polymath Mikhail Lomonosov, is awarded each year since 1959 for outstanding achievements in the natural sciences and the humanities by the USSR Academy of Sciences and later the Russian Academy of Sciences . Two medals are awarded...
in 1979 "for outstanding achievements in biochemistry". He was also awarded five
Orders of LeninThe Order of Lenin , named after the leader of the Russian October Revolution, was the highest decoration bestowed by the Soviet Union...
.
Theory of the origin of life
Oparin sometimes is called "
DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist who realised and presented compelling evidence that all species of life have evolved over time from common ancestors, through the process he called natural selection...
of the 20th century." Although he began by reviewing the various
panspermiaPanspermia is the hypothesis that "seeds" of life exist already all over the Universe, that life on Earth may have originated through these "seeds", and that they may deliver or have delivered life to other habitable bodies....
theories, he was primarily interested in how life initially began. As early as 1922, he asserted the following tenets:
1. There is no fundamental difference between a living
organismIn biology, an organism is any living system . In at least some form, all organisms are capable of response to stimuli, reproduction, growth and development, and maintenance of homeostasis as a stable whole...
and lifeless
matterThe term matter traditionally refers to the substance that all objects are made of. One common way to identify this "substance" is through its physical properties; a common definition of matter is anything that has mass and occupies a volume...
. The complex combination of manifestations and properties so characteristic of life must have arisen in the process of the evolution of matter.
2. Taking into account the recent discovery of
methaneMethane is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is the simplest alkane, and the principal component of natural gas. Methane's bond angles are 109.5 degrees. Burning methane in the presence of oxygen produces carbon dioxide and water. The relative abundance of methane and its clean...
in the atmospheres of
JupiterJupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest planet within the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass slightly less than one-thousandth that of the Sun but is two and a half times the mass of all of the other planets in our Solar System combined. Jupiter is classified as a gas...
and the other giant planets, Oparin postulated that the infant Earth had possessed a strongly reducing atmosphere, containing methane,
ammoniaAmmonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula NH
3. It is normally encountered as a gas with a characteristic pungent odor. Ammonia contributes significantly to the nutritional needs of terrestrial organisms by serving as a precursor to foodstuffs and fertilizers...
,
hydrogenHydrogen is the chemical element with atomic number 1. It is represented by the symbol H. At standard temperature and pressure, hydrogen is a colorless, odorless, nonmetallic, tasteless, highly flammable diatomic gas with the molecular formula H
2...
, and water
vaporA vapor or vapour is a substance in the gas phase at a temperature lower than its critical temperature....
. In his opinion, these were the raw materials for the evolution of life.
3. At first there were the simple solutions of organic substances, the behavior of which was governed by the properties of their component atoms and the arrangement of those atoms in the molecular structure. But gradually, as the result of growth and increased complexity of the molecules, new properties have come into being and a new colloidal-chemical order was imposed on the more simple organic chemical relations. These newer properties were determined by the spatial arrangement and mutual relationship of the molecules.
4. In this process biological orderliness already comes into prominence.
CompetitionCompetition is a contest between individuals, groups, nations, animals, etc. for territory, a niche, or allocation of resources. It arises whenever two or more parties strive for a goal which cannot be shared. Competition occurs naturally between living organisms which co-exist in the same...
, speed of
growthThe term cell growth is used in the contexts of cell development and cell division . When used in the context of cell division, it refers to growth of cell populations, where one cell grows and divides to produce two "daughter cells".-Cell populations:Cell populations go through a type of...
,
struggle for existence"Survival of the fittest" is a phrase which is commonly used in contexts other than intended by its first two proponents - British polymath philosopher Herbert Spencer and Charles Darwin....
and, finally,
natural selectionNatural selection is the process by which heritable traits that make it more likely for an organism to survive and successfully reproduce become more common in a population over successive generations...
determined such a form of material organization which is characteristic of living things of the present time.
Oparin outlined a way in which basic organic chemicals might form into microscopic localized systems - possible precursors of
cellThe cell is the basic structural and functional unit of all known living organisms. It is the smallest unit of an organism that is classified as living, and is often called the building block of life. The Alberts text discusses how the "cellular building blocks" move to shape developing embryos...
s - from which primitive living things could develop. He cited the work done by
de JongDe Jong is the most common Dutch surname. Many people bear this name, including many important historical figures. Some of these people are mentioned below.De Jong may mean:*Piet de Jong, Prime Minister of the Netherlands from 1967 until 1971...
on
coacervateA coacervate is a tiny spherical droplet of assorted organic molecules which is held together by hydrophobic forces from a surrounding liquid....
s and other experimental studies, including his own, into organic chemicals which, in solution, may spontaneously form droplets and layers. Oparin suggested that different types of coacervates might have formed in the Earth's primordial ocean and, subsequently, been subject to a selection process leading eventually to life.
While Oparin himself was unable to do extensive experiments to investigate any of these ideas, scientists were later able to. In 1953, for example,
Stanley MillerStanley Lloyd Miller was an American chemist and biologist who is known for his studies into the origin of life, particularly the Miller-Urey experiment which demonstrated that organic compounds can be created by fairly simple physical processes from inorganic substances...
performed what is perhaps the first experiment to investigate whether chemical self-organization would have been possible on the early earth. (See
Miller-Urey experimentThe Miller–Urey experiment was an experiment that simulated hypothetical conditions thought at the time to be present on the early Earth, and tested for the occurrence of chemical evolution. Specifically, the experiment tested Soviet scientist Alexander Oparin's and J. B. S...
.) He showed that from a mixture of several simple components of a reducing atmosphere, with the input only of heat (to provide reflux) and electrical energy (sparks, to simulate lightning), a variety of familiar organic compounds such as amino acids were synthesised within a fairly short period of time. The compounds that formed were somewhat more complex than the molecules that were present at the beginning of the experiment.
Major works
- "The External Factors in Enzyme Interactions Within a Plant Cell"
- "The Origin of Life on Earth"
- "Life, Its Nature, Origin and Evolution"
- "The History of the Theory of Genesis and Evolution of Life"
See also
- Oparin Medal
The Oparin/Urey Medal honours important contributions to the field of origins of life. The medal is awarded by ISSOL . The award was originally named for Alexander Ivanovich Oparin, one of the pioneers in researching the origins of life...
- List of independent discoveries ("Primordial soup" theory of the origin of life from carbon-based molecules, 1924)