Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!feeder3.eternal-september.org!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!not-for-mail From: ram@zedat.fu-berlin.de (Stefan Ram) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: The Ark of the Biology Date: 30 Jun 2025 18:37:17 GMT Organization: Stefan Ram Lines: 47 Expires: 1 Jun 2026 11:59:58 GMT Message-ID: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: news.uni-berlin.de eCs3y4ZgNV/5viKm2rnaYAXGEMS353lWffG+fly83ejUqC Cancel-Lock: sha1:ygNdLuKyBgkKcLuo3fNBkvhukNQ= sha256:YeJ4K3DH6JqIzbNcV3MQiDBRuOU24EdLdDTlsnycon0= X-Copyright: (C) Copyright 2025 Stefan Ram. All rights reserved. Distribution through any means other than regular usenet channels is forbidden. It is forbidden to publish this article in the Web, to change URIs of this article into links, and to transfer the body without this notice, but quotations of parts in other Usenet posts are allowed. X-No-Archive: Yes Archive: no X-No-Archive-Readme: "X-No-Archive" is set, because this prevents some services to mirror the article in the web. But the article may be kept on a Usenet archive server with only NNTP access. X-No-Html: yes Content-Language: en-US 1:1 God sent forth an Ark of the Biology, a vessel of exceeding subtlety and cunning, wherein was preserved the essence of life, being a compendium of nucleic acids, protein polymers, lipid vesicles, and mineral catalysts, all encased in a matrix of amorphous silicate and hydrogenated carbon. 1:2 And the Ark contained a reservoir of proto-cells, their membranes fashioned from phospholipids, enriched with sterols and carotenoids for protection against the fierce light of the sun. 1:3 And God said, Let there be life: and the Ark opened, and there issued forth the first cyanobacteria, prokaryotes with double membranes and thylakoid stacks, endowed with the full complement of genes for oxygenic photosynthesis: psbA, psbD, psaA, psaB, rbcL, and rbcS. These microorganisms synthesized chlorophyll-A and phycobiliproteins, fixed CO₂ by means of ribulose-1,5-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase, and released O₂ into the atmosphere. 1:4 And the cyanobacteria covered the waters, and they built stromatolites by the secretion of calcium carbonate, and they multiplied by binary fission, exchanging genes through conjugation, transformation, and transduction. 1:5 And there arose a new age, wherein oxygen gathered in the air, and the face of the earth was changed. 1:6 And God saw that it was good, and said, Let the earth bring forth further kinds. 1:7 And out of the cyanobacteria, by endosymbiosis, arose the first eukaryotes, which segmented their genomes and organized their cells with organelles, importing proteins into mitochondria via the TOM/TIM complex. 1:8 And there appeared algae, mosses, and ferns, which performed photosynthesis with Photosystem II and employed C₃ or C₄ metabolic pathways. 1:9 And the plants covered the land, and they developed lignin and cellulose in their cell walls, and they produced seeds and fruits, and there arose a diversity of life forms, whose genomes were diversified by polyploidization and allopatric speciation. 1:10 And God looked upon all that had come forth from the Ark, and behold, it was very good.