The International Journal of Astrobiology and NASA's Astrobiology Magazine Publish Innovative Solution to the Evolution of Form, Providing Missing Initial Steps in Path from Egg to Human Skeleton

NEW YORK, September 29, 2010 - The International Journal of Astrobiology, a peer reviewed scientific
journal published by Cambridge University Press, has published "The Origin of
the Vertebrate Skeleton," submitted by Synthetic Life Lab of New York City.
It has been reprinted in Astrobiology Magazine, an official organ of NASA.
The paper describes the origin of the human skeleton and the shapes of the
component bones in sequential animations beginning with the fertilized egg. A
mathematical reconstruction recreates the initial steps of embryological
development that have been lost over eons as part of the evolutionary process.

How life originated and evolved is arguably the greatest unsolved problem
facing science. Thousands of scientists and scores of organizations and
scientific journals are dedicated to discovering the mechanisms underlying
this mystery. In the journal's letter of acceptance the reviewer states,
"…the article should be published, so that as many scientists as
possible can participate in the discussion on this new important subject."
Simon Mitton, prominent Cambridge scientist and IJA editor-in-chief, calls it
"a groundbreaking concept." Mt. Holyoke paleontologist Mark McMenamin has
called the discovery "a seismic event in science."

The model is based neither on a genetic code nor on natural selection,
thus contradicting the orthodox Neo-Darwinian Synthesis, the paradigm that
has dominated evolutionary biology for seven decades. It offers an
alternative theory that can account for the origin of natural form without
recourse to creationism or supernatural intervention. If it should gain
widespread acceptance, this model would negate the creationist argument that
science has no theory for the origin of complex life.

Laboratory director Stuart Pivar states that evolution progresses by
adding steps at the end of embryological development while the initial steps
disappear, in the phenomenon called condensation. Embryologists today are
walking in on the second act of a complicated two-act mystery play. This
paper is the publication of the first act.

Synthetic Life Lab began its investigation with the study of the known
structure of the cell membrane as a phospholipid bilayer. Experimental models
led to hypothetical constructions based on the configuration predicted by the
expansion of a bilayer surface. The paper describes the steps leading to a
toroidal bilayer, mimicking the vertebrate egg. The rotation of the interior
surface of the bilayer with respect to the outer surface produced a model of
the generation of the vertebrate skeleton, including such details as the
subsurface implantation of the notochord and nerve chord and the development
of the limbs. The first stage after fertilization in observed embryology,
called cortical rotation, offers corroboration of this theoretical model.
Medical practitioners, anatomists and paleontologists know the shape of the
skeleton's 200 bones by rote. But hitherto science has been ignorant of how
their shapes came about. This paper is tantamount to an accurate blueprint
for the formation of the skeleton.

The science of astrobiology was established by NASA in 1998 to study the
origin and evolution of life. Currently thousands of NASA astrobiologists
worldwide are engaged in this research. Pivar says that credit for the
discovery of the new paradigm for biology is due to the many scientists and
science illustrators who partook in the project for over ten years.
Considerable controversy has arisen around the premise, mainly from
geneticists whose lifetime belief systems are challenged by the new model.

The following is the ABSTRACT from the International Journal of
Astrobiology:

The Origin of the Vertebrate Skeleton

Abstract

The anatomy of the human and other vertebrates has been well described
since the days of Leonardo da Vinci and Vesalius. The causative origin of the
configuration of the bones and of their shapes and forms has been addressed
over ensuing centuries by such outstanding investigators as Goethe, Von Baer,
Gegenbauer, Wilhelm His and D'Arcy Thompson, who sought to apply mechanical
principles to morphogenesis. But no coherent causative model of morphogenesis
has ever been presented.

This paper presents a causative model for the origin of the vertebrate
skeleton based on the premise that the body is a mosaic enlargement of
self-organized patterns engrained in the membrane of the egg cell. Drawings
illustrate the proposed hypothetical origin of membrane patterning and the
changes in the hydrostatic equilibrium of the cytoplasm that cause
topographical deformations resulting in the vertebrate body form.

The Origin of the Vertebrate Skeleton (full text and illustrations) may
be viewed at: journals.cambridge.org/repo_A787SZ4p

Astrobiology Magazine may be viewed at: www.astrobio.net

For further information, please visit: www.syntheticlifelab.com

Stuart Pivar of Synthetic Life Lab, info at syntheticlifelab.com, Tel. +1-212-580-0527, Fax +1-212-875-9664