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<center><table cellpadding=4 width=90%><tr><td align="center" bgcolor=Silver valign="center"><table border=8 cellpadding=8 width=100%><tr><td align="center" valign="top" bgcolor="#00FFFF"><font size=6 color="#6C32DE"><b>The Origin-of-Life Prize ®</b></font></td></tr></table></td></tr></table></center>
<H1 ALIGN=CENTER><A HREF="http://lifeorigin.info" target="_parent"><B>lifeorigin.info</B></A></H1>
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<H5 ALIGN=CENTER>Last updated January, 2010</H5>
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<H1 ALIGN=CENTER><i>Description of the Prize</i></H1>
<UL><DL>
<P>"The Origin-of-Life Prize" ® (hereafter called "the Prize") will be awarded
for proposing a highly plausible natural-process <i>mechanism</i> for the
spontaneous rise of <i>genetic instructions</i> in nature sufficient to give rise
to life. The explanation must be consistent with empirical biochemical,
kinetic, and thermodynamic concepts as further delineated herein, and be
published in a well-respected, peer-reviewed science journal(s).
<P>Progress in life-origin research has been greatly impeded by a few key nagging
problems. Biochemical constraints render many appealing theoretical models non
productive. These biochemical constraints have received the most attention in
scientific literature. Self-replication has been another subject of
considerable research, although successes in this area have usually come from
very artificial rather than natural-selection models. But perhaps the most
daunting of all life-origin problems is elucidating a natural mechanism for
"self-organization." Self-ordering is often confused with bona fide
organization. A crucial paper providing valuable background information in
this area is:
<P><A HREF="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B75DC-4M3J0X8-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=5ff1765a7e3edb2caafe25561554f5e2">Self-organization vs.Self-ordering in life-origin models</A>
<P>Abel, D.L. and Trevors, J.T., 2006, Self-organization vs. Self-ordering
events in life-origin models. Physics of Life Reviews 3: 211-228
<P>.</p>
<P>Complexity, "the edge of chaos," hypercycles, Markov processes, fractals,
complex adaptive systems, genetic algorithms, and directed evolution have all
attracted great interest. A valuable summary of progress in these areas is
summarized in another key review paper:
<P><A HREF="http://mdpi.com/1422-0067/10/1/247">The capabilities of chaos and
complexity</A>
<P>Abel, D.L., 2009, The capabilities of chaos and complexity. Int. J. Mol. Sci.
10: 247-291
<P>.</p>
<P>Gene emergence relates specifically to sequence complexity, material symbol
systems, decision nodes, logic gates and configurable switch-settings. The
following papers provide important background information for all of these
issues:
<P><A HREF="http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/1742-4682-2-29.pdf">Three
subsets of sequence complexity and their relevance to biopolymeric
information</A>
<P>Abel, D.L. and Trevors, J.T., 2005, Three subsets of sequence complexity and
their relevance to biopolymeric information. Theoretical Biology and Medical
Modeling 2: Open access at above link.
<P>Abel, D.L., 2002, Is life reducible to complexity? In Palyi, G., Zucchi, C. and
Caglioti, L., Fundamentals of life. Elsevier, Paris.
<P>Abel, D.L. and Trevors, J.T., 2006, More than metaphor: Genomes are objective
sign systems. Journal of BioSemiotics 1: 253-267
<P>Abel, D.L., 2007, Complexity, self-organization, and emergence at the edge of
chaos in life-origin models. Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 93:
1-20
<P><A HREF="http://books.google.com/books?id=GvRmYbN3n6UC&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=%22The+GS+Principle%22&source=bl&ots=-ZK4mRBvqw&sig=52lPn3HuWpfD095dHEidlXr4cBM&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result">More
than metaphor: Genomes are objective sign systems</A>
<P>Abel, D.L. and Trevors, J.T., 2007, More than metaphor: Genomes are objective
sign systems. In Barbieri, M., Biosemiotic research trends. Nova Science
Publishers, Inc., New York.
<P><A HREF="http://www.reference-global.com/doi/abs/10.1515/semi.2009.026">The biosemiosis of prescriptive information</A>
<P>Abel, D.L., 2009, The biosemiosis of prescriptive information. Semiotica 2009: 1-19
<P><A HREF="http://www.tbiomed.com/content/4/1/47">Measuring the functional
sequence complexity of proteins</A>
<P>Durston, K.K., Chiu, D.K., Abel, D.L. and Trevors, J.T., 2007, Measuring the
functional sequence complexity of proteins. Theor Biol Med Model 4: Free
on-line access at
<P><A HREF="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6WCB-4DTKB55-1&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=3ea74b7390980e9d8795e4b731399ed1">Chance and Necessity do not explain the origin of life</A>
<P>Trevors, J.T. and Abel, D.L., 2004, Chance and necessity do not explain the
origin of life. Cell Biology International 28: 729-739
<P>Is your model scientifically plausible? To test this, the scientific method
requires that you calculate a Universal Plausibility Metric (UPM, Xi), and that
you apply the Universal Plausbililty Principle to your model. The
probabilities incorporated into your UPM must be calculated correctly,
factoring the probabilities of: 1) getting only homochiral monomers, 2) only
peptide bonds (half the bonds that normally form between amino acids),
3) only biologically usable amino acids (20 out of 80 or more),
4) getting activated monomers that can polymerize, 5) getting a family member
of each protein catalyst out of sequence space, 6) getting all needed
components produced and assembled at the same place and in the correct reaction
order through time, etc. If the UPM for your model is less than 1, your
model is definitively falsified by the Universal Plausibility Principle
applicable to all hypotheses, models, theories and scenarios in all fields
of science.
<P>See the following link:
<P><A HREF="http://www.tbiomed.com/content/6/1/27">The Universal Plausibility Metric (UPM) and Principle (UPP)</A>
<P>.</p>
<P>The Origin of Life Prize is being offered specifically for falsification of
two null hypotheses:
<P><A HREF="http://www.bentham-open.org/pages/content.php?TOCSJ/2008/00000002/00000001/252TOCSJ.PDF">The Cybernetic Cut - Progressing from description to prescription in systems theory</A>
<P><B>1.</B> Abel, D.L., 2008, "The Cybernetic Cut": Progressing from description to
prescription in systems theory. The Open Cybernetics and Systemics Journal 2:
234-244
<P><A HREF="http://www.bioscience.org/2009/v14/af/3426/3426.pdf">The GS
Principle or The Genetic Selection Principle</A>
<P><B>2.</B> Abel, D.L., 2009, The GS (Genetic Selection) Principle. Frontiers in
Bioscience 14: 2959-2969
<P>.</p>
<P>Brief summaries of these two null hypotheses can be found as Scirus
SciTopic Pages:
<P><A HREF="http://www.scitopics.com/The_Cybernetic_Cut.html">The_Cybernetic_
Cut</A>
<P><A HREF="http://www.scitopics.com/The_GS_Principle_The_Genetic_Selection_Principle.html">The_GS_Principle_The_Genetic_Selection_Principle</A>
<P>.</p>
<P>Also of interest is a short summary of Prescriptive Information (PI):
<P><A HREF="http://www.scitopics.com/Prescriptive_Information_PI.html">Prescriptive_Information_(PI)</A>
<P>.</p>
<P>The one-time Prize will be paid to the winner(s) as a twenty-year annuity in
hopes of discouraging theorists' immediate retirement from productive
careers. The annuity consists of $50,000.00 (U.S.) per year for twenty
consecutive years, totalling one million dollars in payments.
<P>Formal application by submitters is required to win. Submitters must
expressly consent to abide by all terms and conditions of the Prize before
judging of their paper(s) can begin.
<P>The ability of the Foundation to underwrite these payments and to administer
the Project is monitored by the well-known accounting firm of Young, Brophy &
Duncan, PC, Certified Public Accountants.
</DL></UL><HR SIZE=4><A NAME=rul_desc.htm></A><H6 ALIGN=CENTER><A HREF=rul_purp.htm>| next |</A></H6>
<H6 ALIGN=CENTER>Copyright © 1997-2009 THE GENE EMERGENCE PROJECT®</H6>
<H1 ALIGN=CENTER>The Origin-of-Life Prize ®</H1>
<H6 ALIGN=CENTER>is offered through</H6>
<H1 ALIGN=CENTER>The Gene Emergence Project ®</H1>
<H3 ALIGN=CENTER>of The Origin-of-Life Science Foundation, Inc. ®</H3>
<H2 ALIGN=CENTER><A HREF="mailto:life@us.net"><B>life@us.net</B></A></H2>
<H4 ALIGN=CENTER>Watch for updates here on the www at...</H4>
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