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HYMAN HARTMAN
Hyman Hartman was born in Montreal, Quebec,
Canada. He received his B.Sc with honors In
Biochemistry from McGill University (1957) and his
PhD in Biochemistry from Columbia University (1964).
He began his studies on the Origin of Life by publishing
two pioneering papers in 1974 on the Evolution of the
Genetic Code and the Origin and Evolution of
Metabolism. These papers were based on the Clay
theory for the Origin of Life. He edited a book with
Graham Cairns-Smith entitled Clay Minerals and the
Origin of Life (1987).
He was on the Grant Board for NASA Exobiology Division and he was a co-editor
with Jim Lawless and Phil Morrison on the book Search for the Universal
Ancestors published by NASA. He and Temple Smith (Boston University) have
been studying the Bioinformatics of the Ribosomal Proteins and the AminoacyltRNA Synthetases. These studies have allowed them to reconstruct the Origin
and Evolution of the Translational Apparatus and the Origin and Evolution of the
Genetic Code. He is also active with a group in the University of Kentucky and
McGill University studying the De Novo synthesis of Clay as catalyzed by Amino
acids and Dicarboxylic acids.
The Origin of the Genetic Code and Metabolism: From the Eukaryotic Cell to
the Carbonaceous Chondrites
This lecture will be a journey starting with the Eukaryotic cell and then
descending through the evolution of the Eukaryotic Cell to the Origin and
Evolution of the Translational Apparatus and the Genetic Code. Then proceeding
to the bacterial endosymbionts (mitochondria and choloroplasts) of the
Eukaryotic Cell we are able reconstruct from them the evolution of metabolism
(Biochemistry ) including Photosynthesis and then we continue to the Clays and
Amino acids on Carbonaceous Chondrites (4.5 Billion years old).
The experiments that will be discussed will be on the in vitro synthesis of Clays
and the role that amino acids and dicarboxylic acids play in catalyzing the
synthesis of the Clays themselves. These experiments are models for what
happened on the Carbonaceous Chondrites 4.5 Billion years ago.
Website: http://segovia.mit.edu/~hartman/