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The main idea of DNA is that it is text rather than a collection of genes.
In this macromolecule, the text is written in molecular letters, and this is a very large program. The human DNA text is ten thousand volumes of molecular text, and this molecular text allows you to get not only these wonderful energy structures that carry single electrons, but also all the structures of every living being. Each creature has its own text— its own for each blade of grass, for each tree.
A molecular computer in a cell works with a system of DNA, RNA, and protein targeting operators. It cuts and stitches these molecules in the right places according to the program recorded on the DNA using, in the process of calculation, the thermal Brownian motion of these molecular structures (Liberman, 1972). In fact, J. Watson and F. Crick, who discovered the structure and main function of DNA (Watson, Crick, 1953) received the first scientific evidence of the creative force that generated these giant molecular texts.
It should be understood that the amount of information in different DNA regions depends only on the length of these regions, and not on the variety of nucleotides included in them. By brute-force, only short DNA and RNA texts can be obtained. If a random enumeration of DNA went through the entire Universe, densely filled with cells, and mutations would occur every 10-12 seconds, then it would only be possible to obtain a desired specific DNA text with a length of 400 nucleotides during the entire existence of the Universe (estimated according to modern physics).
An enzyme that randomly searches through RNA polynucleotides, synthesizing them from diphosphates without spending free energy, actually exists in living cells (Grunberg-Manago et al., 1956).
M. Vainzwaig and I proved the universality of such a stochastic computer (Weinzweig, Liberman, 1973). The proof consisted of comparing the stochastic language invented by us with the language of the normal Markov algorithm. Mathematicians regard this algorithm as a universal computing machine, which is equivalent to a Turing machine. This work caused unnecessary excitement in the hope of making a DNA-based computer for the generals. It should be understood that the language of the normal Markov algorithm uses words of any length that exist only in the minds of mathematicians. In the real world, the length of DNA is limited primarily by the thermal motion of the molecules.
The molecular computer in living cells does indeed convert DNA and is similar to a stochastic computer.
Now we begin to understand that the formulae of mathematical physics, which were always thought to be laws of nature, do not contain information on how to make a real calculation.
Therefore, it is the DNA texts that are the laws of nature; the knowledge that not only the influence of measurement is significant, but also the influence of computation, is embedded in these texts.
In a 1972 paper on the molecular computer, the concept of the cost of an action per computation was introduced. In physics, the action for a uniform and rectilinear motion is the product of energy and time. In all other cases, this is a very complex value, beyond the understanding of a normal person. The cost of an action for a computer is expressed as the product of the energy spent on one operation by the time spent on this operation. The cost of an action is an understandable value, for a molecular computer of a cell it is equal to about 1013h.
Development of genetic engineering has shown that it is precisely such a noise molecular computer that controls living cells. The first to appreciate the idea of a molecular computer was Academician Andrei Sakharov, whom I met in the canteen for Academicians. (My personal benefactor, Academician Yuri Ovchinnikov, arranged for a pass for me to this dining room.) Sakharov asked me several questions to which I had no answer. The second time I tried to tell him about Chaimatics was after his return from exile, but then, unfortunately, he was already busy with politics and only told me that he did not understand science without formulae.
Molecular computers of neurons
After it became clear that, at that time in the USSR, it was impossible to study the operation of a molecular computer using experiments with DNA and RNA, Svetlana Minina and I tried to check whether molecular computers of neurons were involved in the workings of the brain (Liberman et al., 1975).
The idea was simple: cAMP, which is a one-letter RNA word, should be responsible for a neuron’s main function of transmitting messages to other neurons and organs. Experiments with intra-neuronal injection were performed on the neurons of a grape snail. Substances can be injected into them through micropipettes and impulses generated by the neuron can be measured. Experiments have shown that cAMP injection induces a generator potential (Fig. 4).
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As a result of these studies, we were able to understand that the tasks facing the brain are solved not by a network of neurons, which merely add up electrical excitations, but rather by a network of intra-neuronal computers. The study of the mechanism of action of cAMP has shown that cAMP controls the system that provides time reference for nerve impulses in the axon. The depolarization of the neuron membrane caused by the injection of cAMP is different from the depolarization observed in axons. In axons, depolarization is usually associated with an increase in permeability to sodium ions and therefore is always accompanied by an increase in membrane conductivity. To our surprise, when depolarization was induced by cAMP, the resistance of the neuron body membrane remained practically unchanged. It turned out that cAMP causes not only an increase in sodium permeability, but also a simultaneous decrease in potassium permeability. Later we realized that cAMP controls the amount of time that the output sodium and potassium channels remain open. Interestingly, when a large amount of cAMP is injected, almost all potassium channels are closed, creating a potential difference on the rest of the membrane.
Figure 4. A generator potential induced by cAMP injection (Liberman et al., 1977).
The emergence of Chaimatics
Nikita Shklovskiy-Kordi and Gennady Zhuravel joined our work. They developed a new installation, and we began injecting cAMP not only by iontophoresis, but also using short pressure pulses (Fig. 5). This, as I now understand, led to the emergence of Chaimatics, the formulation of its first principle and its experimental confirmation (Liberman et al., 1985).
Figure 5. cAMP injection using short pressure pulses (Liberman et al., 1982).
Following injection with a short pulse of cAMP pressure, we injected water and various solutions, including ATP, with the same impulse. Certainly, unlike cAMP, these substances did not cause a generator potential (Fig. 5a). However, to our surprise, when we increased the duration of the pressure pulse and, consequently, the volume of injected fluid, the inflation of the folded membrane of the neuron led to multiple appearances of the generator potential (Fig. 5b). I realized that this effect could only be associated with the fact that the cytoskeleton controls the output ion channels of the neuron body membrane.
Molecular wave regulator
The molecular computer of neurons is slow and not very suitable for solving the physical problems that living things face, so that they can run, swim and fly. Instead, such problems could be solved by a molecular wave regulator using the cytoskeleton as a computing medium. Since the elements of the intracellular computing environment have molecular dimensions, electromagnetic waves are unsuitable, because waves with a wavelength of the order of 100-1000 Å destroy molecular structures. The only suitable carrier is hypersound with a frequency of 109-1011 Hz.
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“Chaim” means life
Then, my paper about this (Liberman, 1983), was submitted to the journal Biofizika. The paper’s publication was delayed for a long time. Our remarkable theoretical physicist reviewer rightly asserted that the existence of QMR (quantum molecular regulator) contradicts physics. At the same time, we decided to send a paper entitled "Chaimatics" abroad. To our disappointment, it took a long time to obtain permission for submitting this paper even though I had already visited the United States with a delegation of reconciliation, and our papers were freely published abroad.
I went to Academician Baev (who was then the Academy Secretary in charge of foreign affairs) to find out what was the matter. He came through the Stalinist camps, where he had been badly crippled. The Academician told me: “I will not let your paper through because you want to glorify your name.” I was very surprised and said: "You know that my name is Efim." "Do not pretend," said the Academician, "that you do not know that this was how your parents hid your real Jewish name—Chaim." He knew what I did not know then. The original meaning of the name of this scientific discipline has survived only in a paper written by my American friend Michael Conrad (Conrad and Liberman, 1982).
I asked what the Hebrew word "Chaim" means and learned that "Chaim" is "life," and the name of this scientific discipline got its real meaning.
Later, when my children studied at a Jewish school, I, together with them, read in the Torah that anti-Semites are the descendants of the Amalek nation, and I realized that this is a genetic disease. An error in their DNA text due to incest. I think it can be detected by the methods of modern molecular biology.
chaimatics
Chaimatics
Discovery of links between the biology, physics and mathematics, and founding a new area of studies focused on computations in living systems are his life achievements. Efim Liberman gave the name of “Chaimatics” to this new area of science
I
DNA is the text of a code written for molecular computers of living cells. The notion of “Text” is intrinsically opposite to a random sequence of symbols, and it can exist only inside the system of language. In this case, it is a genetic language, which is isomorphic to a natural language
II
Computations conducted in a living cell are real physical actions, and free energy and time must be spent for completing them. As all living organisms are comprised of cells, this statement is applicable to any control processes implemented in the biosphere
III
Molecular computations are limited by the microscopic scale of a cell and inevitable impact of the computations on formulation of a problem begin solved. The Chaimatics grew from the recognition of the computation reality as the quantum mechanics grew from the recognition of the measurement reality.
IV
A cell creates а quantum computing tool for solving complex problems. This tool utilizes hypersound quanta, and uses the cell cytoskeleton as the computing environment. In such a computer, a price of elementary computation converges to the physical limit, which is Planck’s constant
Chaimatic's statements are simple, but they require a change in the traditional vision, rooted in scientific practice
Read a book
Chapter I
The journey of life in science
chaimatics