A chemical systems approach to evolution

The paper concerns the chemists way of looking at evolution. It is not based on the DNA but on the chemical elements in The Periodic Table of Mendelev. The first step is the analysis of the element content of organisms as they arose historically. This shows that in keeping with our knowledge of the environment the chemical elements in organisms changed due to the rise in oxygen in the atmosphere. Elements such as copper and zinc were greatly increased in later organism as they were released from their sulfidic ores to the sea. The nature of the changes in the chemical elements available to organisms is then discussed in terms of their functions. It is shown that much though the Darwin perception of evolution is pure chance it is strictly guided by the inevitable chemistry of the elements arising from oxidation of the environment.