Bioceramics and the origin of life.

Creation of life involves establishing an organism that is capable of self-maintenance, self-reproduction, and adjustment to a changing environment. A Bioactive Substrate Theory of the origin of life is proposed, where the function of the bioactive substrates was to achieve the irreversible ordering of macromolecules into replicative structures. The ordering was a result of six precytic ordering factors which provide the mechanisms for simultaneous formation of primitive codonic-bases, anabolic processes and energy-producing, catabolic processes on bioactive inorganic glassy crystalline assemblages. Time dependent changes in the isoelectric point of the inorganic assemblages enabled the anabolic and catabolic processes to be isolated within the same bilipid membrane. The enormous diversity of inorganic glass-crystal assemblages associated with volcanic activity resulted in many alternative evolutionary pathways for the precytic structures, eventually producing the major genetic pathways for life observed today. The evidence for bioactive ordering factors is examined including selective adsorption of optically active amino acids on optically active mineral substrates and specific cellular responses to bioactive implant materials. The implications of this theory on the biochemical design of implants, and prevention of disease states in modern man are discussed.