Raul A Felix de Sousa
Raul A. Felix de Sousa | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 28, 1960 |
| Residence | Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil |
| Nationality | Brazilian |
| Known for | Origin of life |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Chemist |
Raul Antônio Félix de Sousa (born June 28, 1960) is a Brazilian chemist based in Rio de Janeiro, known for proposing the Ecopoesis model for the origin of life, which holds that geochemical cycles of the biogenic elements preceded the appearance of organisms.
Biography
Félix de Sousa was born and has lived most of his life in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As a chemist, he has worked in fields as varied as galvanoplastics and explosives, though most of his professional career has been in the pharmaceutical industry, reflecting his interests and acquired skills in organic chemistry and biochemistry. Beyond the origin of life, his areas of particular interest include phytochemistry and the organic chemistry of enzyme-catalysed reactions. His non-professional interests include hiking, cooking and traveling.
Scientific contributions
Félix de Sousa is the author of the Ecopoesis model for the origin of life, first set out in his book Ecopoese - A Criação da Ecosfera (2000; 2nd edition 2006) and later summarised in English in the 2010 paper "The Ecopoesis Model: Did Free Oxygen Fuel the Origin of Life?"
The model departs from conventional theories of biopoesis by assigning the leading role to the physical environment rather than to organisms. In it, an atmosphere containing a high proportion of molecular oxygen, generated by the atmospheric photolysis of water vapour, is treated as an essential feature of the Earth's earliest ecosphere. According to the model, this early oxygen drives a flow of electrons from the reducing components of the lithosphere across the Archean seas, establishing a planetary geochemical metabolism. In this framework the biogeochemical cycles of the biogenic elements are held to have preceded cellular organisms, which appear comparatively late, with modern biochemistry viewed as having evolved out of earlier geochemical processes.
Abstracts
- 2010 - "The Ecopoesis Model: Did Free Oxygen Fuel the Origin of Life? viXra: 1010.0001" (Read in full)
Books
External links
- The Ecopoesis model for the origin of life (author's website)
- Ecopoese - A Criação da Ecosfera (full text, in Portuguese)
- The Ecopoesis model on Wikiversity