Alexander Ivanovich Oparin

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Oparin's grave bust in Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery

Alexander Oparin ( Russian Александр Иванович Опарин ., Scientific transliteration Aleksandr Ivanovich Oparin ; born February 18 . Jul / 2. March  1894 greg. In Uglich , † 21st April 1980 in Moscow ) was a Soviet biochemist . He is considered the founder of scientific research into the origin of life on earth.

Life

From 1912 to 1917 he studied at Moscow University and was then a doctoral student. Between 1921 and 1925 he was an assistant in the Department of Plant Physiology . Under Alexei Bach , between 1919 and 1922 he was also an employee in the Chemical Division of the National Economic Council and from 1921 to 1925 in the Central Chemical Laboratory in Moscow. In 1922 he studied with the physiologist Albrecht Kossel in Heidelberg, after which he traveled on to Austria, in 1924 to Italy and 1925 to France. After his return in 1925 he worked as a lecturer and from 1929 as a professor of biochemistry.

From 1927 to 1934 Oparin was deputy director of the Central Institute of the Sugar Industry, from 1929 to 1931 professor of technical biochemistry at the Mendeleev Institute for Chemical Technology and (from 1930 to 1931) at the Institute for Grain and Flour. Since 1934 member of the Academy of Sciences . In 1935 he became deputy director of the Institute for Biochemistry under Bach, and in 1946 he succeeded Bach as director. In 1937 he was a professor at the Technical Institute for Food Production, either in the same year or in 1942 he also became head of the chair for biochemistry, an office which he held until 1960. In 1956 he became a member of the Leopoldina and in 1966 a corresponding and 1969 foreign member of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin . Oparin was awarded the Kalinga Prize for Popularizing Science in 1976. Shortly before his death in 1980, he received the Lomonosov gold medal in 1979 .

Hypothesis on the origin of life

Oparin's hypothesis is based on the following assumptions:

  1. The primordial atmosphere of the earth had reducing properties. It mainly consisted of methane , water vapor, ammonia and traces of hydrogen sulfide .
  2. She was exposed to various energy sources, such as B. Lightning discharges , solar radiation and volcanism . This led to the formation of small organic molecules.
  3. These substances collected in the hydrosphere and formed what is known as the primordial soup . The first forms of life spontaneously emerged from there.

Today, Oparin's hypothesis is largely considered obsolete, but in its time it formed the basis for research into prebiotic evolution .

Works (selection)

Russian editions

  • Произхождение жизни . М. Московский рабочий, 1924; Origin of Life . M. Moskovsky rabotschi, 1924
  • Возникновение жизни на Земле . М. Изд-во АН СССР, 1957; Origin of life on earth . M. Publishing house of the AdW of the USSR 1936
  • Жизнь, ее природа, происхождение и развитие. Ин-т биохимии . М .: АН СССР, 1968; Life, its nature, its origin and its development . Moscow, AdW of the USSR, 1968
  • Возникновение жизни на Земле . 3.е издание, полностю переработанное, М. Изд-во АН СССР, 1957; Origin of life on earth . 3rd edition, completely revised, M. Verlag der AdW der USSR, 1957
  • Материя - жизнь - интеллект . М. Наука 1977; Matter - Life - Intellect . M. Nauka, 1977
  • Проблема происхождения жизни в свете достижений современного естествознания, в книгениго: лилоствознания, в книге . М. 1959; Problems of the Origin of Life in the Light of the Achievements of Modern Science, in the book Problems of Modern Science . Moscow, 1959
  • Возникновение жизни на Земле . In: Труды Международного симпозиума . 10 - 24 августа 1957 г. М. Изд-во АН СССР, 1959; Origin of life on earth . The work of the International Symposium 10. – 24. August 1957, M. Verlag der AdW of the USSR, 1959
  • Произхождение предбиолонических систем . Перевод с англ. / Пол ред. А.И. Опарина. М. Мир, 1966; The emergence of prebiological systems . Translation from English / Edited by Oparin, M. Mir, 1966
  • Пути начального формирования обмена веществ и искусственное моделирование этого формирования в коацерватных каплях . In: В книге: Происхождение предбиологичеких систем. М., 1966; Ways of the causal formation of the metabolism and the artificial modeling of this formation in coacervate droplets . In: The emergence of pre-biological systems . Moscow, 1966

German editions

  • The origin of life on earth . Berlin 1949
  • The life. Its nature, origin and development . Jena 1963

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Isolde Schmidt: Oparin, Aleksandr Ivanovič In: Ilse Jahn (Hrsg.): Geschichte der Biologie , 3rd edition, 2000, ISBN 3-8274-1023-1 , p. 917
  2. ↑ Horst Rauchfuß: Chemical Evolution - and the Origin of Life , 2005, ISBN 3-540-23965-0 , p. 12
  3. ^ Peter J. Bowler: Evolution. The History of an Idea . Univ. of California Press, Berkeley 2003, pp. 339-340 .
  4. ↑ Michael Marshall: The secret of how life on earth began , on: BBC - Earth, October 31, 2016

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Oparin, Alexander Ivanovich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Опарин, Александр Иванович (Russian); Oparin, Aleksandr Ivanovič
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Soviet biochemist
DATE OF BIRTH March 2, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Uglich
DATE OF DEATH April 21, 1980
Place of death Moscow