Phenomenological Theory of Survival

Theoretical analysis proves that human survivability is dominated by an unusual physical, rather than biological, mechanism, which yields an exact law. The law agrees with all experimental data, but, contrary to existing theories, it is the same for an entire species, i.e., it is independent of the population, its phenotypes, environment and history. The law implies that the survivability changes with environment via phase transitions, which are simultaneous for all generations. They allow for a rapid (within few percent of the life span) and significant increase in the life expectancy even above its value at a much earlier age.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

Long range interaction yields a new kind of phase transition

DNA denaturation, wetting in two dimensions, depinning of a flux line, and other problems map onto a phase transition with effective long range interaction. It yields giant non-universal critical indexes, arbitrarily large macroscopic correlation length and fluctuations at a finite distance from the critical temperature. In the vicinity of this region the Gibbs distribution is invalid, and thermodynamics must be calculated from the first principles. There are no fluctuations above the critical temperature.Comment: 9 pages, no figures, an improved presentation of cond-mat/021217

Dark energy and quantum entanglement

Entangled states in the universe may change interpretation of observations and even revise the concept of dark energy

Conservation laws in biology and evolution, their singularities and bans

Well known biological approximations are universal, i.e. invariant to transformations from one species to another. With no other experimental data, such invariance yields exact conservation (with respect to biological diversity and evolutionary history) laws. The laws predict two alternative universal ways of evolution and physiology; their singularities and bans; a new kind of rapid (compared to lifespan), reversible, and accurate adaptation, which may be directed. The laws agree with all experimental data, but challenge existing theories.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figur

Non-coding DNA programs express adaptation and its universal law

Significant fraction (98.5% in humans) of most animal genomes is non- coding dark matter. Its largely unknown function (1-5) is related to programming (rather than to spontaneous mutations) of accurate adaptation to rapidly changing environment. Programmed adaptation to the same universal law for non-competing animals from anaerobic yeast to human is revealed in the study of their extensively quantified mortality (6-21). Adaptation of animals with removed non-coding DNA fractions may specify their contribution to genomic programming. Emergence of new adaptation programs and their (non-Mendelian) heredity may be studied in antibiotic mini-extinctions (22-24). On a large evolutionary scale rapid universal adaptation was vital for survival, and evolved, in otherwise lethal for diverse species major mass extinctions (25-28). Evolutionary and experimental data corroborate these conclusions (6-21, 29-32). Universal law implies certain biological universality of diverse species, thus quantifies applicability of animal models to humans). Genomic adaptation programming calls for unusual approach to its study and implies unanticipated perspectives, in particular, directed biological changes.Comment: Refined version 19 pages, 10 fig

Comment on Why is the DNA Transition First Order? and Griffiths Singularities in Unbinding of Strongly Disordered Polymers

The papers [1,2] consider unbinding of a disordered heteropolymer. They find the first order phase transition [1] when disorder is strong (i.e. the ratio v of the binding energies is large; in DNA v is~1.1) and the Griffiths singularity, i.e. infinite order transition, otherwise [2]. The problem is important, since many physical phenomena map onto the same model (see refs. in [1, 2]). Drastic non-universality in the strength of disorder is unanticipated. Unfortunately, both titles are misleading: they claim the results which are proven for homopolymers only

Immortality as a physical problem

Well protected human and laboratory animal populations with abundant resources are evolutionary unprecedented. Physical approach, which takes advantage of their extensively quantified mortality, establishes that its dominant fraction yields the exact law, whose universality from yeast to humans is unprecedented, and suggests its unusual mechanism. Singularities of the law demonstrate new kind of stepwise adaptation. The law proves that universal mortality is an evolutionary byproduct, which at any age is reversible, independent of previous life history, and may be disposable. Recent experiments verify these predictions. Life expectancy may be extended, arguably to immortality, by relatively small and universal biological amendments in the animals. Indeed, it doubled with improving conditions in humans; increased 2.4-fold with genotype change in Drosophila, and 6-fold (to 430 years in human terms), with no apparent loss in health and vitality, in nematodes with a small number of perturbed genes and tissues. The law suggests a physical mechanism of the universal mortality and its regulation.Comment: refined versio

DNA denaturation as a new kind of phase transition

Unbinding of a double-stranded DNA reduces to an unscreened long range interaction and maps on various problems. Heterogeneity renormalizes interaction. Renormalization is temperature dependent. At an unbinding transition it approaches critical dimensionality. This implies giant non-universal critical indexes and invalidity of the Gibbs distribution sufficiently close to the critical temperature Tc. Fluctuations are macroscopically large below Tc. There are no fluctuations above it.Comment: 7 pages, no figure

Biological universality yields new kind of laws

Biological approximations, which are universal for diverse species, are well known. With no other experimental data, their invariance to transformations from one species to another yields exact conservation (with respect to biological diversity and evolutionary history) laws, which are inconsistent with known physics and unique for self-organized live systems. The laws predict two and only two universal ways of biological diversity and evolution; their singularities; a new kind of rapid (compared to lifespan) adaptation and reversible mortality, which may be directed. Predictions agree with experimental data, and call for new concepts, insights, and microscopic theory.Comment: 15 pages, no figures, a generalization of cond-mat/021217

Dynamics of mortality in protected populations

Demographic data and recent experiments verify earlier predictions that mortality has short (few percent of the life span) memory of the previous life history, may be significantly decreased, reset to its value at a much younger age, and (until certain age) eliminated. Such mortality dynamics is demonstrated to be characteristic only of evolutionary unprecedented protected populations. When conditions improve, their mortality decreases stepwise. At crossovers the rate of decrease rapidly changes. The crossovers manifest the edges of the stairs in the universal ladder of rapid mortality adjustment to changing conditions. Mortality is dominated by the established universal law which reduces it to few biologically explicit parameters and which is verified with human and fly mortality data. Specific experiments to test universality of the law for other animals, and to unravel the mechanism of stepwise life extension, are suggested.Comment: Invited talk at Conference on old ag