New Birth to Runaway Solitons

Abstract

A new frontier in biology and biomechanics is emerging. Its scope appears much broader than has been covered to date in the discipline, since the new viewpoint stresses first the molecular level as the basis for studies of biological phenomena involving cells and organisms. In this new field, enthusiastic workers from interrelated disciplines believe that, to improve our understanding of essential properties of living matter and to boost our ability to make valuable applications, the objective is perhaps best achieved, by investigating the basic biological processes involving DNA, enzymes, and other participating molecules in vivo. It has been contended that, although the classic model of the DNA helix by James D. Watson and Francis Crick has been indeed invaluable, the structural models can only tell part of the story because they have been presented without life in them. The real DNA is rich in movement. It bends, vibrates, and resonates, and with such movements it goes on transporting and distributing biochemical energy that is needed for perpetuating life. To provide a concrete case germinated from the seed ideas conceived in “molecular biomechanics,” the school of thought led by Davydov (1971, 1979) is recapitulated here, in Section 3, with the main result elucidating the significant role that can be played by solitary waves in bioenergetics.