Part 5.: DialecticS of NATURE Main Sequence Series. Planet Earth +?: Allo-Hybridizing Interactions of Self-Hybrid prokaryotic cell units and/with/versus Self-Hybrid molecule units.

 

Planet Earth +?:

 

Allo-Hybridizing

Interactions

of

Self-Hybrid

prokaryotic

cell units

and/with/versus

Self-Hybrid

molecule

units.

 

 

Part 5.:

DialecticS

of

NATURE

Main

Sequence

Series.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Reader,

 

The overall ‘dialectic of Nature’ ontological-categorial progression model for the dialectical partial synthesis category, ‘synphysis’ category, or ‘uniphysis’ category, symbolized by q_pm, in that model's 6^th model-epoch – which includes the macro-cosmological hybridization processes of prokaryote-units-interacting-with-molecule-units, still ongoing today, but only known to occur, so far, on planet Earth – is represented, via the _NQ dialectical language’s ‘dyadic Seldon function’, with that function-form operating upon the ‘Regenerist’ Hypothesis’s “Dark Energy” ‘spandetron’ units’ «arché»-category, q_x, and is, partially [‘¶’], solved by us as follows –

 

q_x²⁶  =  q_x⁶⁴   ¶|-º  

 

q_x <+> q_c <+> q_cx <+> q_r <+>     

 

q_rx <+> q_rc <+> q_rcx <+> q_a <+>

 

q_ax <+> q_ac <+> q_acx <+> q_ar <+>     

 

q_arx <+> q_arc <+> q_arcx <+> q_m <+>

 

q_mx <+> q_mc <+> q_mcx <+> q_mr <+>     

 

q_mrx <+> q_mrc <+> q_mrcx <+> q_ma <+>

 

q_max <+> q_mac <+> q_macx <+> q_mar <+>     

 

q_marx <+> q_marc <+> q_marcx <+> q_p <+>

 

. . . <+> q_pm

 

– with ontological category q_pm partially solved – 

[‘¶|-º’] 

– by us as representing, primarily, the cosmo-ontological category of the process, so observed only, by Terran humans, on planet Terra, of direct ingestions of molecule units, q_m, by prokaryotic cell units, q_p, and the natural formation units, e.g., “black smoker” ecosystems, within which that process is sustained. 

 

 

 

“Prokaryotic Living Cells” and/versus “Molecules”.  Within the above-written cosmological-ontological, dialectical [i.e., ‘multi-«aufheben»-izing’ – ‘multi-meta-unit-izing’] ontological-categorial-progression, is the sub-progression that forms the focus of this blog-entry, namely –

 

 

q_p <x>  q_m    =   q_m <+> q_pm.

 

 

This component-subprocess, categorizing and ‘character-izing’ [i.e., algebra-izing] prokaryotic cell units/molecule units inter-actions, can well-describe what is believed to have gone on at the sub-oceanic hydrothermal vents, near spreading lines of upwelling magma that drive continental drift.

 

Note: Our research on this hybrid ontological category has been assisted by AI-researchers.

 

Known Planet Earth Instantiations of Category q_pm.  

Single-celled prokaryotic organisms, known as chemolithoautotrophs “prey” on naked molecules.  Instead of “eating” other living cells, or relying on sunlight for their life-energy, they utilize chemosynthesis to convert inorganic molecules – expelled by deep, sub-oceanic hydrothermal vents – into cellular bio-chemical energy, and internally store biochemical potential energy in the form of organic sugars, produced thereby.

 

These speci-al bacterial and ‘archaeal’ prokaryotes populate the extreme temperature gradients directly outside of ocean floor “black smoker” chimneys, which, today, still serve as the basis for vibrant deep-sea ecosystems.

 

Their Molecular-Metabolic Menu: What They “Eat”.

To sustain their self-reproduction, these prokaryotes require three basic inputs: a carbon source to build the substances of their cells, an electron donor (the primary food/fuel), and an electron acceptor, to complete their life-reproducing biochemical reactions.

 

 

Carbon Source (To Build Biomass): Carbon dioxide (CO₂).

 

 

Electron Donors (Their “Food”): Hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), molecular hydrogen (H₂), methane (CH₄), and ferrous iron (Fe⁺⁺).  Note that these species belong, in part, in the category of ‘atom-units-eating’ prokaryotic cell units, Seldonian category-symbol q_pa.

Electron Acceptors (their “Breathing” Agent): Molecular Oxygen (O₂) from pervading seawater, sulfate (SO₄^- -), nitrate (NO₃^-), or elemental Sulfur (S), which typically exists as molecular multi-atomic rings, S₈, not as solitary, chemically-unbonded, isolated Sulfur atoms. 

 

Key Molecules-Eating Species and Their Molecular-Metabolisms.

 The prokaryotes at these sub-oceanic ridges are ‘taxonified’ into two distinct categories: Archaea (often hyperthermophiles living in the hottest zones) and Bacteria.

 

1.  Archaea (The Heat-Loving Extremophiles).

Methanopyrus kandleri: This extreme hyperthermophile thrives on the inner walls of black smokers.  It “eats” H₂ and CO₂ to produce methane (CH₄) through methanogenesis.

 

Pyrolobus fumarii: Famous for surviving temperatures up to 113°C (235°F), this archaeon “eats” H₂ and uses nitrate, 

(NO^- - -), 

or thiosulfate as its electron acceptors, to fix CO₂.

 

Geoglobus ahangari: A unique species that can utilize molecular hydrogen (H₂) or organic acids, using ferric iron, 

(Fe^{- - -}), 

atoms as electron acceptors.  Note that this species belongs, in part, in the category of ‘atom-units-eating’ prokaryotes, Seldonian category-symbol q_pa.

 

 

2. Bacteria (The Primary Ecosystem Drivers)

Thiomicrospira species (e.g., Thiomicrospira crunogena): These are rapid-growth sulfur-oxidizing bacteria.  They “eat” toxic [to humans] hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), or thiosulfate, from the deep-sea vent fluid, and use molecular oxygen (O₂) from the surrounding ocean water to turn CO₂ into organic matter.

 

Sulfurovum lithotrophicum: Belonging to the highly dominant Campylobacterota phylum at the deep-sea vents, it generates energy by oxidizing elemental sulfur, S, or H₂S.  Again, this elemental Sulfur (S) typically exists as molecular multi-atomic rings, S₈, not as solitary, chemically-unbonded, isolated Sulfur atoms.

Mariprofundus ferrooxydans: Found further along the gradient, this bacterium “eats” dissolved ferrous iron (Fe⁺⁺), oxidizing it into iron rust to power its metabolic functions.  Note that this species belongs, in part, in the category of ‘atom-units-eating’ prokaryotes, Seldonian ontic category-symbol q_pa.

Category q_pma?  Category q_pa? 

The units, described above, of prokaryotic living cell units that are both, or alternately, ‘atom-units-eating’ and ‘molecule-units-eating’, should be allocated to Seldonian hybrid, partial-synthesis category q_pma, not to the less-hybridized dialectical partial-synthesis category q_pm.

The encounters, noted above, with instantiations of Seldonian hybrid ontological category q_pma led us to consider possible instantiations of Seldonian hybrid category q_pa.  Our research on that issue led us to claims, as we expected, of the lack of any known ‘instantiates’ of category q_pa on Earth, and also to arguments that no units of that category – of prokaryotic organisms that “eat” only chemically unbonded, non-molecular atoms – are even possible.

 

A major such argument ran as follows –

There are no known prokaryotic species that “eat” only single, isolated atoms to fuel their metabolism.

 

While many prokaryotes at deep-sea hydrothermal vents (“black smokers”) do live entirely without sunlight, they always rely on molecules (atoms ‘self-meta-unitized’ – bonded together) rather than on individual, unbonded atoms for their chemical energy.

 

Metabolism requires a flow of electrons to generate energy, and single atoms cannot provide this in the harsh conditions of deep-sea vents for several reasons:

• Chemical Instability: Earth’s elements (except for noble gases like helium or neon, which are chemically inert) are highly reactive as single atoms. They immediately bond with other elements/atoms to form molecules.

 

• Molecular Fuel Sources: The famous "rock-eating" prokaryotes (lithotrophs) at black smokers survive by breaking the chemical bonds of small inorganic molecules.  They extract electrons from molecules like hydrogen sulfide (H₂S), molecular hydrogen (H₂), or methane (CH₄), and pass them to electron acceptors like oxygen (O₂) or sulfate (SO₄^{- -} ).

 

• Elemental Exceptions are still Multiatomic: Some microbes can utilize elemental Sulfur (S⁰), but in nature, elemental sulfur exists as multiatomic molecular rings (typically S₈), not solitary, isolated Sulfur atoms.

  

 We also learned that not all instantiations of Seldonian hybrid ontic category q_pma are found in deep ocean “black smokers” –

 

There are many species of prokaryotes that "eat" both molecules and unbonded atomic elements/units, while living in total darkness.

 

In microbiology, these organisms are known as chemolithotrophs (chemosynthetic rock-eaters). They do not rely on sunlight and fuel their metabolisms.  They extract electrons from both molecules and solid, unbonded elemental structures – isolated atoms.

 

Single isolated atoms are generally too unstable to exist alone in nature.  However, several pure, unbonded elements/atoms exist naturally in macroscopic solid or crystalline forms (such as solid chunks of zero-valence metals or Sulfur crystals).  Some prokaryotes can “eat” from these raw aggregations of chemically unbonded atoms alongside dissolved molecules.

 

Because solid atomic elements cannot pass through a prokaryotic cell wall or cell membrane, these prokaryotes use a process called Extracellular Electron Transfer (EET) to utilize these atoms.

 

They use molecular "wires" (specialized proteins on their outer membranes) to touch the solid, unbonded atoms directly and pull electrons out of them, or to pump electrons into them. 

 

The following non-photosynthetic microbes readily switch between digesting dissolved molecules and solid, chemically-unbonded atoms:

Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans  This acid-loving bacterium [bacteria are a major sub-category of prokaryotes] thrives in deep caves and acid mine drainage, entirely without sunlight.  It can fuel its metabolism by swapping between molecular fuels and unbonded, elemental, atomic structures:

 

• Unbonded Elements: It directly oxidizes pure elemental sulfur (S⁰), pulling electrons out of Sulfur atoms in their naturally-occurring solid Sulfur crystals.

• Molecules: When Sulfur isn't available, it extracts energy from dissolved atoms like ferrous iron (Fe⁺⁺), or dissolved molecules like hydrogen sulfide (H₂S).

Geobacter sulfurreducens  Found deep in underground aquifers and anaerobic sediments, Geobacter grows entirely independent of sunlight by utilizing metal respiration:

• Unbonded Element: It can utilize zero-valent iron (Fe⁰), which is pure, unbonded metallic iron atoms.  It can also “breath” [“respirate”] Uranium atoms.  It grows “nanowire” proteins [”pili”] to physically attach to the metal atoms, and then to extract electrons from them.
• Molecules: It simultaneously or alternatively digests organic molecules like acetate or lactate, using them as electron donors.

 

Sulfolobus acidocaldarius  This belongs to the Archaea domain (an ancient-most sub-category of prokaryotes) and lives in geothermal hot springs and deep hydrothermal zones:

• Unbonded Element: It actively attaches to chunks of elemental Sulfur atoms (S⁰) and oxidizes it into sulfuric acid to generate ATP, the universal life-energy molecule [Adenosine Tri-Phosphate] for Earth life [at least].

 

• Molecules: In the absence of elemental Sulfur, it can shift its metabolism to consume self-bonded molecular hydrogen gas (H₂), or “organic” molecules like amino acids.

Origin of Life Relevance.

Many evolutionary biologists believe that ancient black smokers provided the chemical conditions needed for the Universal Common Ancestor of all Earth life to have evolved, billions of years ago.

 

On the Dialectical Nature of the Opposition Between Prokaryotic Cell units and Molecule units.  

The dialectical opposition between the category of atom units and the category of molecule units is one that we cannot directly, sensuously perceive, since both are far too minute for our unaided eyes or fingers to detect.  

That opposition is produced via a concrete negation operation, yielding a ‘‘‘negativity’’’, a specific ‘not-ness’, that distinguishes the two.  

That [self-]negation operation is not any “abstract negation” operation, that obliterates its operands into a nothingness.  

It is, on the contrary a dialectical, “determinate negation” operation [cf. Hegel], a allo-«aufheben» allo-operation, by which multiples of molecule units are continually being incorporated into the body of a single prokaryotic cell unit, negating their ‘mere-molecularity’ determination, but also conserving that ‘molecule-ness’ inside their new ‘cellular-ness’, and uplifting themselves into the higher size/mass/-complexity scale of prokaryotic living cell units, leaving behind their former molecules-only complexity scale and level.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more information regarding these Seldonian insights, and to read and/or download, free of charge, PDFs and/or JPGs of Foundation books, other texts, and images, please see:

 

www.dialectics.info 

and

https://independent.academia.edu/KarlSeldon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For partially pictographical, ‘poster-ized’ visualizations of many of these Seldonian insights – specimens of ‘dialectical art’ – as well as dialectically-illustrated books published by the F.E.D. Press, see –

 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/DialecticsMATH

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

¡ENJOY!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Regards,

 

Miguel Detonacciones,

Voting Member, Foundation Encyclopedia Dialectica [F.E.D.];

Elected Member, F.E.D. General Council;

Participant, F.E.D. Special Council for Public Liaison;

Officer, F.E.D. Office of Public Liaison.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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