14 - Light, matter and life (A scenario for the origin of life and its evolution)

Summary

Introduction

This chapter is of a different nature from the preceding chapters where more or less well-established principles of the spectroscopic studies of microscopic motions in condensed matter have been described, as is usual in texbooks and monographs. In this last chapter, however, the author is going to present his personal viewpoint on the role of solar radiation in creating life out of matter, sustaining living activities and driving the evolution of the living world – topics which have generally been considered to be beyond the scope of the physical sciences.

Obviously, life science is a vast interdisciplinary regime: the elucidation of life will need the cooperation of all areas of natural science. The majority of scientists working in any discipline will supposedly have a serious interest in the problem of life even when they do not mention that explicitly. The particular reason why the present author feels it necessary and useful to make remarks on this problem is that the various photochemical processes described in the preceding few chapters and the behaviors of charged particles in dielectrics described in other chapters have something to do with, and to shed light on, the role of solar radiation as an energy source and the role of water as a catalyst in living activities. Further investigation of these roles might contribute to constructing a bridge from our small corner of physical science, among many other such bridges under construction from different areas of science, towards elucidating the physical origin and evolution of life itself.

What the author can do as a theoretical physicist is present speculations based on the various empirical and experimental facts available.