[ExI] Freeman Dyson is dead

[Re Rose]

Hi Spike, and all~

   Thanks - I lurk here rather often but only emerge from time to time :)

   Here is a brief version of my interactions with Dyson. It was a very
interesting time in my scientific journey, I was a grad student doing
research in Manfred Eigen's group on answering the question: how was the
fidelity of biological information preserved? Eigen focused on delineating
the mechanics of quasi-species  generation, and limits of the error
catastrophe. My personal interest was, how did organized biological
information in the form of DNA/RNA arise in the first place, in a prebiotic
arena? [Aside: I am of late interested in how inforrmation organizes in
simple networks of neurons -- you can see the progression!]   Anyhow, Prof
Eigen and a few others knew Freeman Dyson, he would come by the group for
discussions on the origins of life and eat with us at the canteen.

   After we met and he learned I was a grad student, he gave me his book,
and we discussed the pros and cons of metabolisim vs.RNA first theories. It
was great, because the puzzle in my mind was, it's all very nice and well
that RNA carries information and all that, but how likely was it that,
prebiotically, RNA was around in high enough concentrations (yes, there are
lots of thermodynamically feasible proposals for syntheses of prebiotic
RNA, but yields are painful and the molecule hydrolyzes)? Meanwhile, there
are 10 amino acids which were prebiotically available and capable of doing
chemistry, acting as proto-enzymes, and binding to lipid molecules,
possibly even assisting with menbrane formation. Prebiotic life could
easilty have organized around the chemistry of these amino acids and
lipids, with RNA and its pal DNA coming around to hang out later.

   So which was first, as he asked - metabolisim or replication? Dyson was
the scientist who introduced me to this still-unanswered question, and
those conversations were rich and fascinating. He had a compelling energy
around him. He was patient, knowlegable, encouraging, sparkling, and
engaging. What a pleasure. and hoinor to be able to boince ideas around
with him when I was such a fuzzy young scientist.

 -Regina



On Thu, Mar 5, 2020 at 11:37 AM <spike at rainier66.com> wrote:

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> *On Behalf Of *Re Rose via extropy-chat
> *Subject:* Re: [ExI] Freeman Dyson is dead
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> Me too!! (re: cryonics)
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> >…I had the honor of discussing my research with Freeman Dyson when I was
> a postdoc working on the origins of prebiotic life, back in the late 90s.
> We discussed his book, "Origins of Life", a small gem. It was exciting to
> hear him talk about his ideas on the origins of life, and his enthsuasm and
> humor were infectious. I met with him only a few times, but his ideas
> permeated my thoughts on my project. He will be missed.
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> --Regina
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> Regina!  We haven’t heard from you in years!  Where have you been?
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> Tell us everything that happened please Doctor.
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> Urban legend has it that Isaac Asimov was asked about his intentions on
> cryonics.  His reply was that there was no need, since he had already
> uploaded himself into his books.
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> After that, I started uploading myself into ExI.
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> spike
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