THE EFFECTS OF ULTRAVIOLET LIGHT ON COLORLESS FLAGELLATES,

Present-day lower organisms - naked colorless flagellates - are capable of withstanding doses of shortwave ultraviolet radiation close in intensity to the intensity of the suns ultraviolet radiation which reached the surface in the preoxygen period of the earths existence. These data make it possible to answer one of the most important objections to photosynthesis in ultraviolet rays. The continuous link of the photosynthesis of the first organisms with the help of UV-photons with the abiogenic photosynthesis of organic compounds turns out to be entirely possible. Life as a cyclic process of the use in portions of the energy of the electron excitation of molecules by light photons will inevitably develop under conditions different from those of the earth, in readying the soil for the development of living creatures with their relatively closed internal metabolism, with the capacity for adaptation and progressive evolution. Author