An electromagnetic theory of life—II: Testing

Medical Hypotheses I MedicoI Hyporkrer (1992) 38, 3os-310 @LmgnnnGrvupUKLtd1992

An Electromagnetic Theory of Life-k

Testing

D. H BULKLEY The Seattle fnsfitufe for the Life Science, 6579 40th NE, Seatffe, WA 98175, USA

Abstract-Serious problems and contradictions face the long-standing chemical reaction theory of life. Arguments favoring an alternative view featuring electromagnetic micromechanisms were presented in the December 1989 issue of this journal (27, 31). However, the theory had an extremely general form which was forbidding to laboratory demonstration. It became clear that its essentially conceptual form needed to be transformed to a testable theory which ultimately could lead to laboratory verification. Now, with the recognition of the role of chaos theory in finding order within chaos in the kinetics of cell metabolism, the electromagnetic theory of life has become better grounded and more amenable to laboratory testing and evaluation. I thus focus on certain theoretical advances as well as the application of new technologies to test the hypothesis of 5 specific target areas. With the verification of electromagnetic processes in life, we anticipate that the biomedical sciences will be propelled to a wealth of solutions to many vexing problems.

Introduction The purpose of this paper will be to a) define the prevailing ‘Life-as-Chemistry’ paradigm, b) list severa1 examples of its serious problems, c) summarize an alternative ‘Life-as-Physics’ hypothesis involving electromagnetic processes, and d) suggest 5 target phenomena where currents and fields at the molecular microcircuit level can be measured quantitatively with new technologies.

em enzyme. The reactions occur in many assemblvline ‘pathways’. Each reaction, discrete- and terminal, involves 4 steps: the coming together of enzyme and substrate, a union, a reaction involving the transfer of electrons (oxidation-reduction) between donor and acceptor molecules, and a separation-resulting in new equilibrium products. Hundreds, thousands or millions of reactions (in the case of DNA) must take place, in perfect sequence, essentially without error, in order to arrive at the macromolecular microstructures

The prevailing ‘Life-as-Chemistry’ view

Existing theory argues that the rearrangement of elements to form the large molecular structures of life occurs by a lengthy series of step-by-step chemical reactions, with each reaction catalyzed by a differIhe received 6 June 1991 Date accepted 2 October 1991

A few experimental facts which contradict this view

We have collected over 250 examples of phenomena which favor an alternative view of the living process

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306 by a) apparently contradicting the chemical model and/or b) pointing to electromagnetic micromechanisms. A few more important ones are:

MEDICAL HYFOTHESES out Tropo II enzyme activity. Motility theories requiring any of these 4 pillar items are thus proven wrong.

1.

Biosynthetic and metabolic velocities in specific cases exceed by far the values predicted by diffusion and chemical reaction kinetics, e.g. it is physically impossible for Step 4 in glycolysis to take place in the time frames known (20). 2. The architecture of subcellular microstructures, with mirror images, coiled coils and the appearance as dense circuit patterns, manifests the required geometry of electrical and magnetic systems. This would not be expected from chemical reactions in a ‘soup’ of reactants. 3. Prior work has already proved that electrical currents do indeed occur at the cellular level (17). Together with electrical conductivity, resistivity and polarization associated with cells, this establishes the necessary basis for an electromagnetic biology and a need for the assessment of the magnitudes of both electrical currents and of their associated magnetic field, in vivo. 4. 9 different types of experimental evidence exist for superconductive events in biological systems including levitation of chelates at physiological temperatures (the Meissner Effect) (1, 29). 5. Long-range interactions have been demonstrated by enzyme catalysis and antigen-antibody reactions occurring through membrane barriers and separated by distances of over 100 angstroms (11). 6. Loop circuit closures and membrane connections are required for many metabolic activations. Theoretically, connections would not be required for classical biochemical processes. 7. A range of bioelectromagnetic phenomena, such as Kirlian photos (23) and coherent photon emissions from all living tissues (24) are not readily explained by chemical theory. 8. Dynamic turnover (and the half-lives) of macromolecules is ubiquitous in life (25). Life could not rely on enzymes which theoretically are SO unstable. 9. Within the same system, enzymes exist with opposed functions. This is called ‘futile cycles’ (26). Thus some enzymes would be breaking molecules apart as fast as other enzymes are putting them together, thus disallowing large molecules and making life impossible. 10. Dr John Sedat of the University of California at San Francisco has videos showing drosophila chromosomes wriggling and squirming without actin. without mvosin. without ATI? and with-

Summary of an electromagnetic rheory of life

A new ‘Life-as-Physics’ hypothesis, deduced conceptually from a study of its microstructure, from speculations on its micromechanisms and the scores of ‘impossible’ problems with biochemical theory, can now be considered well grounded and theoretically sound as a result of the discovery of ‘order out of chaos’. In urging a paradigm shift from ‘Life-as-Chemistry’ to ‘Life-as-Physics’ we first raise the basic question of the relationship of chemical data to electromagnetic events. While it is generally believed that electromagnetic phenomena in life are derivatives of more basic chemical affairs, the truth may be the opposite. We would suggest that biochemical kinetics, which seems to underlie and support metabolism, is actually only the chemical face, a gross effect, as it were, of those underlying electromagnetic processes. To give logical force to this argument, we can point to the discovery by a Soviet scientist of a little-known but very well established area of physical chemistry, periodic chemical kinetics. A significant number of organic chemical reactions, especially those associated with oxidation in the apparent biological sense (not the generalization of a ‘loss of electrons’), are governed by a new kinetic system. Periodic kinetics and the re-establishment of an exact order at a high temperature (the notion of ‘order out of chaos’), was discovered in the 1930s by the little-known Soviet genius Frank-Kamenetsky (19, 22). In this system, the equations of a simple harmonic oscillator fall out directly from the chemical equations. Thus the electromagnetics supporting actual field frequencies are not ‘reflections’ of a more basic chemical process, but primitive or primordial, with chemical order following those events obediently. Dr Frank-Kamenetsky’s work on periodic kinetics is pivotal to a new electromagnetic paradigm for biology which can finally explain in detail the physics of such enigmas as the fundamental nature of bioenergetics, the mechanisms of energy transduction, charge separation, charge transfers, and unsolved processes as enzyme catalysis, muscular contractions, nerve transmissions, dynamic turnover, metabolic homeostasis, the exact balance of metabolism (from magnetic toroids), molecular duplications (in situ through-

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out cells rather than on ribosomes) and many others too numerous to be encompassed here. These and other functions we believe may also find a harmonious congruence in the ‘twistor’ theory of physics developed by Roger Penrose and his group at Oxford University (2). The twistor. having the appearance of a magnetic torus, represents an effort by Penrose to integrate all the physical force relationships from sub-atomic to galactic. The magnetic torus permeates the microstructures and energetics of cell biology. Outlining the electromagnetic processes of life

To elaborate on electromagnetic processes in the origin and nature of life, it is noted, first of all, that many high-dipole monomers such as amino acids form spontaneously throughout the cosmos. By closing into long-chain, series-linked loops, they would become molecdar circuits which superconduct electrons jolted loose by infrared or Ampere-Neumann (16) resonances. The electrons, flowing around these circuits at nearly the speed of light, generate magnetic fields in the shape of a torus (donut or smoke ring). The forces of these magnetic toroids (twistors) attract free molecules to copy the ring-structures of the template pattern. Exact copies are guaranteed because electrons tend to form pairs, quartets and octets. A mismatch of atoms cannot happen often because it would violate the fundamental electron-pairing mechanism by requiring more energy to do so. An example of me basic molecular duplication process would be as follows: Take one unit ring, known as a DNA pyrimidine, consisting of 4 carbon and 2 nitrogen atoms (C-N-C-N-C-C). When a molecule of nitrogen (N2) is attracted to the ring, seeking the lowest energy level, it gives off energy (photons) as it pairs with the template nitrogen atom. The excess energy in photons then splits off and drives away the excess atom. Step by step, atom by atom, the template keeps spewing off DNA and protein duplicate copies of its pattern. Of great interest at this point is the recent work on C60 ‘buckyballs’ (21) as ready-made superconductive templates throughout the cosmos for the basic molecules of life. But what about the incorporation of nitrogen into these otherwise pure carbon soccerballs? The spontaneous transmutation of carbon atoms into nitrogen atoms, in situ (3), provides the necessary patterns for proteins and nucleotides. At a primitive stage of evolution, the attractive and repulsive forces of magnetic fields at opposite faces of hydrocarbon ring-structures may have resulted initially in a runaway multiplication of loop-

circuits (peeling apart into mirror images) to form vast petroleum deposits. But the incorporation of nitrogen atoms into the templates facilitated the evolving of nitrogenous proteins for membranes and cell walls so that the massive duplications became more constrained to form single-cell micro-organisms in great variety. Finally, guided by the same electromagnetic forces, and exposed to the selective processes of evolution, cells would aggregate into multi-cell organisms to end up, in death, as coal deposits. The toroidal magnetic forces underlying all the replications would also generate cytoplasmic flows, muscular contractions, ‘field effect’ activities, and ultimately result in organisms engulfing each other up the food chain to sustain their template replications with substrates. Pars-crystalline phased arrays found in the stacked template replications in the molecular architecture of living cells can have the effect of focusing their radiations to provide the means for coherent signals for long-distance communication at the molecular level between living cells and organisms. Testing the electromagnetic hypothesis

The primary issue separating the 2 alternative hypotheses, ‘Life-as-Chemistry’ and ‘Life-as-Physics’, lies in the superconductive molecular microcircuits and the magnetic toroids proposed for the latter. There is now experimental evidence for their existence. If this bears out, then the existing theory that the life process is one of electron transfers in a series of chemical reactions must give way to one of electron flows in microcircuits with their associated magnetic fields driving the replications and motilities. Why have they not been detected? It may be because a) our technology has not been sufficient to detect them, b) they are not looked for because current theory excludes them, or c) magnetic shielding at the nano level may come into play. But now that electrodes are being fashioned as small as 10 Angstroms and smaller, we are getting into the area of feasibility in detecting the finest energetic events in the life of the cell. From 1981 the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) brought atomic resolution to conductors. The descendents of the STM (15) were the atomic force microscope, which brought atomic resolution to biological macromolecules in 1985 (4), the friction force microscope in 1987, the magnetic force microscope also in 1987, the electrostatic force microscope in 1988, the attractive mode force microscope, the scanning thermal microscope, the optical absorption microscope, the scanning ionconductance microscope, the scanning near-field opti-

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Cal microscope, the scanning acoustic microscope and the molecular dipstick microscope. The explosion of techniques, together with nanometer-sized electrodes called ‘nanodes’ (5) should help us settle the fundamental issue of process. Several other developments include ‘angular distribution Auger microscopy’ (ADAM) (13) and ‘atomic scale tunnel diodes’ (14) both of which narrow the focus of detection to the smallest energetic events in biology. Attention to microstructures are paramount. It should be remembered, that the native structure of protein itself (not the crystalline artifacts separated from their naturally complexed glycolipids) is still largely speculative. We need to ‘chase’ molecular circuits and windings. And for those who are accustomed to think of plastics as insulators rather than as potential conductors ‘oriented polymers can make plastics stronger than steel and more conductive than copper’ (6). The following 5 test areas have been selected as targets because they appear to be in contradiction to biochemical theory, and because they are relatively unencumbered by extraneous complications. The reader may know of other structure-functions even more attractive as targets for distinguishing between the two chemical and physical hypotheses.

1.

2.

We need to assess the magnitude of both currents and their associated magnetic fields in specific systems whose existence is already established (17). The magnetic fields, because of the spatial proximity of source and receiver, could be very significant. We need to measure the electromagnetic fields being generated. There is proof of both capacitance and inductance in biological systems at the cellular level (18). The pivotal significance of this evidence is that, from a computation of the capacitive and inductive reactance, we can determine the frequency which characterizes a resonant situation in a cellular micro-circuit, The resonant frequency can convey biological signals from one molecule to another. This field travels at the velocity of light.

In brief, the measurable currents in such microcircuits are also subject to the effects of capacitance and inductance which, if there are periodic transients, must produce an electromagnetic field. It should be noted that the field frequency can be higher than the driving frequency of an oscillator. If the measurable frequency characterizing this field corresponds to the resonant frequency deduced from the inductance and capacitance of the biological system, the case for its origin is completed and closed. Membrane

Barrier Substrates

Enzymes

Fig. 1 The flagellar motor Fig. 3 Catalysis through

Fig. 2 Spiral paths of polymer

beads

2 specific test results are needed:

barrier membranes

Flagellar motors spin at speeds up to 12 000 rpm (7) with free rotation in the bacterial membrane, and reverse themselves (Fig. 1). Originally there was a spectrum of chemical theories involving ATP and enzymes driving the spin with a series of chemical reactions. But when it was found that the spin-rate remained constant despite the widest range of temperature the bacteria could tolerate, chemical theories

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Phage

Bacterium

capsid

t not to scale) Fig. 4 Injection of viral DNA into bacteria

had to be abandoned. Ionic mechanisms were then invoked with hydrogen ions (protons) slipping in and out of slots, for example, in complex processes. We would like to see those with the appropriate expertise examine the fine structure of the motor to see the expected spiral windings of protein filaments in both the rotors and stators, how they are wound, and where they are connected. Can they be detected and their electrical currents and magnetic fields measured? There are reports which suggest that the microtubules of the cell walls of root hairs are endless spiral windings. Estimates of the power involved in flagellar spins, driving their bodies through viscous fluids, might well require that the currents be superconductive to generate magnetic fields of such strength. Polymer beads travel in spiral paths up and down the lengths of free-floating bacterial micro-filaments (8) (Fig. 2). What are the energetics of cell organelles and vesicles that move along microtubules or actin filaments and pass each other going in opposite directions ?(9) Does not the microtubular construction of the cell wall suggest endless windings ?(lO) It seems reasonable to expect that some continuous circuit flow must necessarily be going on inside the bacterial body to generate the forces that drive the polymer beads in their spiral paths. What is the precise molecular structure underneath the bacterial cell wall? Cannot the energetics of this system be detected and measured? Soluble enzymes, hormones and antibodies interact catalytically with substrates and antigens on the other side of barrier membranes (11) (Fig. 3). This is contrary to biochemical theory. Are there currents in microcircuits in the catalyst? And can we detect and measure them? Would there not be some radiation penetrating through the barrier to act on the substrates? Would this not presuppose some dynamic events within the catalyst molecules, such as superconductive microcircuits, which would be generating the radiation? Over several decades there has been a

considerable research literature on mitogenetic radiation from onion root tips etc, without resolution. The injection of viral DNA into bacteria is a high speed occurrence (12, 30) (Fig. 4). It would be analogous to 20 miles of 1 inch rope moving through a 6 inch length of 1 inch pipe in less than 30 s. Its close-tolerance passage is through what appears to be a solenoid of viral mitochondria. We see nothing pushing the DNA out of the capsid, and doubt whether some force would pull the DNA strand from the bacterial end. We would propose that the DNA is driven by the continuous winding’s current of the bacterial body. Both the current and its associated magnetic fields would be detectable in the area of the viral ‘solenoid’ connection. Crab omatidia have long chains of paracrystalline structures called rhabdoms (28) (Fig. 5). Presuming phased arrays in the microstructure of these lens proteins, is there a laser-like effect in their molecular resonances for long-distance transmission of signals? When facing each other, can the stimulus of one be detected as a response in the other? And can we detect and measure superconductive microcircuits among the lens crystalline within the rhabdoms? Conclusion

The application of latest technology is proposed to explore 5 specific phenomena to test for the predicted existence of superconductive circuits at the molecular level. Positive results with quantitative measurements of electrical currents and their associated magnetic fields throughout cell biology would mandate the need for a new electromagnetic ‘Life-as-Physics’ paradigm to guide the life sciences.

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Fig. 5 Crab anatidia

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