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 .p0  .p02 Compare massive star to ladybug
 .p04 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigonotarbida | Trigonotarbids, 250 MYa archnids ]]
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 .p022 Compare massive star to ladybug
 .p0
 .p024 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_matter| active matter ]] physics, [[ Tamás Vicsek ]]
 .p026 formula for probability of ant choosing a pheromone trail marked by a prior ant or ants, not usable without examples and numbers
 .p027 formulas obscured when many ants swarm towards multiple goals
 .p028 self-organizing behavior, not supervised but seeming so
 .p034 birds save energy by flying in formation and coordinating wing beats, minimizing downwash effects
 .p035 18yo Cockell in the Canadian north, banding birds caught in nets, then released
  . different ducks behaved differently, unique individual "personalities"
 .p035 Physics trumps individuality
 .p036 cellular cytoskeleton proteins self-organize
 .p037 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinesin | kinesin ]] [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axonal_transport#Anterograde_transport | (anterograde) ]] and [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myosin | myosin ]] [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axonal_transport#Anterograde_transport | (retrograde) ]] motor molecules crawl along polar [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tubulin | tubulin ]] filaments
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 .p0
 .p044 500nm [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coccinellidae | ladybug ]] [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insect_wing | hindwings ]] under hard [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elytron | elytra ]] wing cases
 .p045 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitin | chiten ]] 10% steel strength, 10x [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keratin | keratin/hair ]] strength
 .p055 [[ https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/irrefragable | irrefragable ]] irrefutable, indisputable
 .p055 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemolymph | hemolymph ]] insect body fluid comparable to vertebrate blood
 .p056 mathematical [[ https://www.dictionary.com/browse/olio | olio ]] heterogeneous hodgepodge
 .p2 [[ | ]]
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 .p0  .p061 [[ https://web.archive.org/web/20100723133025/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/7899216/Secret-of-how-moles-breathe-underground-revealed.html | mole tolerance of high CO₂ ]] [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talpidae | Talpidae ]] "true moles" in Europe, Asia, North America; marsupials in Australia with similar shape and burrowing physics
 .p067 no propellers on fish, but flagella on microbes, 600 body lengths per second
 .p068 low [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_number | Reynolds numbers ]] at small scale, viscosity dominates inertia
 .p069 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Growth_and_Form | On Growth and Form ]] 1917, by [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D'Arcy_Wentworth_Thompson | D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson ]]
 .p070 "first serious attempt to demonstrate the mathematical regularity of life"
 .p070 some accuse Thompson of [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitalism | vitalism; ]] instead, life is bounded by laws
 .p072 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeobox | Homeobox ]] [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hox_gene | Hox genes ]] control limb development
 .p076 biological inherency, similar structures modified to suit laws prevailing in different environments
 .p077 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_frogmouth | pink frogmouth ]][[ https://www.sciencetimes.com/articles/9750/20170303/walking-fishes-sea-robin-pink-frogmouth-caught-on-camera-at-the-ocean-floor.htm | walks across sea floor on modified fins ]]
 .p077 transition from sea to land "required several experiments to succeed"
 .p080 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_hedgehog_protein | SSH Sonic Hedgehog protein ]] gene signals limb formation, suppressed in snakes
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 .'''p083 Ch05 Bundles of Life  .'''p083 Ch05 Bundles of Life'''
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 .p0  .p087 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipid_bilayer | phospholipid membrane molecules ]] hydrophobic inner carbon chains, hydrophilic outer head, bilayer array into membranes
 .p088 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_W._Deamer | David Deamer ]] at UC Santa Cruz extracted lipids from meteorites, which spontaneously formed bilayer vesicles
 .p089 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyruvic_aci | Pyruvic acid ]] can also make membranes
 .p091 [[ https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms9427.pdf | U. Edinburgh scientists ]] tested thousands of alternate molecular pathways, routes used by life produce more compounds than all possible alternatives
 .p092 pathways might flexibly mutate to other pathways, but nature evolved towards the optimum
 .p092 np285 Barve 2014: [[https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/1752-0509-8-48.pdf | Historical contingency and the gradual evolution of metabolic properties in central carbon and genome-scale metabolisms ]]
 .p095 Most microbial membranes surrounded by a [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peptidoglycan | peptidoglycan ]] wall, "like a chicken wire mesh"
 .p095 np287 Persat 2014: [[ https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms4824.pdf | The curved shape of Caulobacter crescentus enhances surface colonization in flow ]]
 .p097 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gram-positive_bacteria | Gram-positive bacteria ]] peptidoglycan cell wall with inner membrane but no outer membrane
 .p097 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gram-negative_bacteria | Gram-negative bacteria ]] peptidoglycan cell wall sandwiched between an inner and outer membrane
 .p098 Simpler Gram-positive bacteria more susceptible to antibiotics
 .p103 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slime_mold | Slime mold ]] cells gather into tentacles and move towards nutrients
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 .'''p105 Ch06 The Edge of Life  .'''p105 Ch06 The Edge of Life'''
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 .p1  .p106 Cleveland Potash Ltd [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boulby_Mine | Boulby mine ]] 1400 meters deep, 1000 km of underground roads
  .[[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyhalite | polyhalite mineral ]] K₂Ca₂Mg(SO₄)₄·2H₂O . 1 million tonnes of [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potash | Potash ]] per year, now 1 million tonnes of polyhalite
 .p107 microbes may multiply once every few thousand years
 .p107 [[ https://www.ukri.org/news/uk-underground-laboratory-host-worlds-deepest-farming-study/ | Boulby Underground Science Facility ]], tunnels 30℃, 86℉
 .p109 Center of Earth: Pressure 360 GPa, Temperature 5700K . . . 10 km down, 100℃
 .p109 chemical reaction rate doubles per 10℃, faster biomolecule breakdown
 .p110 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperthermophile | hyperthermophiles above 80℃ ]] [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanopyrus | Methanopyrus kandleri ]] can reproduce at 122℃ / 250℉
 .p113 no replicating life below -20℃
 .p114 [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychrophile | psychrophile ]] microbes grow best below 15℃
 .p116 [[ | ]]
 .p118 [[ | ]]
 .p120 [[ | ]]
 .p121 [[ | ]]
 .p121 [[ | ]]
 .p123 [[ | ]]
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 .'''p125 Ch07 The Code of Life  .'''p125 Ch07 The Code of Life'''
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 .p1  .p125 [[ | ]]
 .p128 [[ | ]]
 .p133 [[ | ]]
 .p134 [[ | ]]
 .p137 [[ | ]]
 .p140 [[ | ]]
 .p141 [[ | ]]
 .p142 [[ | ]]
 .p143 [[ | ]]
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 .'''p145 Ch08 Of Sandwiches and Sulfur  .'''p145 Ch08 Of Sandwiches and Sulfur'''
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 .p1  .p148 [[ | ]]
 .p150 [[ | ]]
 .p152 [[ | ]]
 .p154 [[ | ]]
 .p155 [[ | ]]
 .p156 [[ | ]]
 .p157 [[ | ]]
 .p157 [[ | ]]
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 .'''p167 Ch09 Water, the Liquid of Life  .'''p167 Ch09 Water, the Liquid of Life'''
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 .p1  .p179 [[ | ]]
 .p180 [[ | ]]
 .p181 [[ | ]]
 .p191 [[ | ]]
 .p192 [[ | ]]
 .p192 [[ | ]]
 .p193 [[ | ]]
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 .'''p195 Ch10 The Atoms Of Life
 .p2
 .'''p195 Ch10 The Atoms Of Life'''
----
 .p210 [[ | ]]
 .p211 [[ | ]]
-----
 .'''p217 Ch11 Universal Biology'''
----
 .p224 [[ | ]]
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 .'''p217 Ch11 Universal Biology
 .p2
 .'''p239 Ch12 The Laws of Life: Evolution and Physics Unified'''
----
 .p239 [[ | ]]
 .p246 [[ | ]]
 .p253 [[ | ]]
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 .'''p239 Ch12 The Laws of Life: Evolution and Physics Unified
 .p2
 .'''p259 Acknowledgements'''
----
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 .'''p259 Acknowledgements
 .p2
 .'''p263 Notes'''
----
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 .'''p263 Notes
 .p2
 .'''p325 Index'''
----
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 .'''p325 Index
 .p3

-----

The Equations Of Life

How Physics Shapes Evolution


  • p001 Ch01 Life's Silent Commander



  • p019 Ch02 Organizing the Multitudes


  • p024 active matter physics, Tamás Vicsek

  • p026 formula for probability of ant choosing a pheromone trail marked by a prior ant or ants, not usable without examples and numbers
  • p027 formulas obscured when many ants swarm towards multiple goals
  • p028 self-organizing behavior, not supervised but seeming so
  • p034 birds save energy by flying in formation and coordinating wing beats, minimizing downwash effects
  • p035 18yo Cockell in the Canadian north, banding birds caught in nets, then released
    • different ducks behaved differently, unique individual "personalities"
  • p035 Physics trumps individuality
  • p036 cellular cytoskeleton proteins self-organize
  • p037 kinesin (anterograde) and myosin (retrograde) motor molecules crawl along polar tubulin filaments


  • p039 Ch03 The Physics of the Ladybug



  • p059 Ch04 All Creatures Great and Small



  • p083 Ch05 Bundles of Life



  • p105 Ch06 The Edge of Life



  • p125 Ch07 The Code of Life


  • p125

  • p128

  • p133

  • p134

  • p137

  • p140

  • p141

  • p142

  • p143


  • p145 Ch08 Of Sandwiches and Sulfur


  • p148

  • p150

  • p152

  • p154

  • p155

  • p156

  • p157

  • p157


  • p167 Ch09 Water, the Liquid of Life


  • p179

  • p180

  • p181

  • p191

  • p192

  • p192

  • p193


  • p195 Ch10 The Atoms Of Life


  • p210

  • p211


  • p217 Ch11 Universal Biology


  • p224


  • p239 Ch12 The Laws of Life: Evolution and Physics Unified


  • p239

  • p246

  • p253


  • p259 Acknowledgements



  • p263 Notes



  • p325 Index



EquationsOfLife (last edited 2026-07-23 23:14:13 by KeithLofstrom)