Pross,
Addy
Born: 1945
B.Sc. (First
Class Hons): 1966; Ph.D.: 1970, University of Sydney,
Australia.
Faculty member
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel, 1973; Emeritus Professor, 2013.
ARC Professorial
Fellow, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, 1992-1994.
Visiting Professor,
NYU Shanghai, 2014-2016.
Email:
addy.pross@gmail.com
Research Interests:
Theoretical and Physical Organic Chemistry
Application of
qualitative and quantitative molecular orbital and valence bond theories to
problems of organic reactivity. The main goal: to develop new approaches
to understanding organic reactivity. Emphasis is placed on the modeling of
barrier formation by use of the Curve-Crossing Model. With an
understanding of those factors that govern barrier heights, the model can be
applied to a range of organic reactions to answer questions such as: why are
some reactions fast while others are slow; why are some reactions concerted,
while others proceed through an intermediate; what causes a mechanistic change
to occur in a family of reactions? The relationship between the model and
existing approaches to problems of organic reactivity (Marcus theory, potential
energy surface models, etc.) are investigated.
Bridging between
Chemistry and Biology. Seeking the Roots of Darwinian Theory in Chemistry.
Chemistry and biology
are closely related sciences yet the chemistry-biology interface remains highly
problematic. Science is confident in the belief that chemistry became biology, but
how did such an extraordinary transition come about? Our research program
involves the development of a kinetic theory of replicating systems that will
attempt to help bridge the animate-inanimate gap. In earlier work we have
demonstrated that there are two distinct kinds of stability in nature –
thermodynamic stability associated with "regular" chemical systems,
and dynamic kinetic stability (DKS), associated with replicating systems. We
propose building on those earlier ideas in order to help uncover the
physicochemical principles that were responsible for the emergence of life, the
relationship between emergence and evolution, and most generally, to uncover
the connection between the two general laws of change in the universe,
Darwinian natural selection and Boltzmann’s statistical interpretation of the
Second Law.
Books:
Pross, A. Theoretical
and Physical Principles of Organic Reactivity, Wiley, New York, September,
1995.
Pross, A. What is Life? How Chemistry
becomes Biology, Oxford UP, September 2012, 2nd Ed. 2016.
Media:
Book reviews for “What is life?”
Trends in evolutionary biology: http://www.pagepress.org/journals/index.php/eb/article/view/4637
Chemical & Engineering News
http://cen.acs.org/articles/91/i24/Chemistry-Life.html
Microbe Magazine:
Atheist Radio Interview on: What
is life? How Chemistry becomes Biology
http://www.thinkatheistradio.com/albums/dr-addy-pross/
The Biologist
Interview on the Chemistry-Biology interface
(SUNY ESF TV)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YVHQWTfAYE&feature=youtu.be
Oxford University Press Youtube on What is
life?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxnxAAB-Vk0
OOL debate with George Whitesides,
ICPOC 23, UNSW, Sydney, July 2016.
Essays and Blog Posts on assorted Life issues:
http://aeon.co/magazine/nature-and-cosmos/stability-how-life-began-and-why-it-cant-rest/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/addy-pross/what-is life_b_4992980.html?utm_hp_ref=science
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/addy-pross/why-are-atoms-so-small_b_5159795.html
http://old.elsi.jp/en/blog/44-why-life-addy-pross/
Publications since 2003
Pross, A. The driving force for life’s emergence. Kinetic and
thermodynamic considerations, J. theor. Biol. 220, 393-406
(2003). (PDF-1)
Coote, M.L., Pross, A., and Radom , L. On the Variable
Trends in R–X Bond Dissociation Energies (R = Me, Et, iso-Pr, tert-Bu) Organic
Letters, 24, 4689-4692 (2003).
Pross, A. and Khodorkovsky, V. Extending the concept of
kinetic stability: Toward a paradigm for life, J. Phys. Org.
Chem. 17, 312-316 (2004). (PDF-2)
Pross, A. Causation and the origin of life. Metabolism or
replication first? Origins Life Evol. Bios. 34,
307-321 (2004). (PDF-3)
Pross, A. On the emergence of biological complexity: Life as a
kinetic state of matter. Origins Life Evol. Bios. 35, 151-166 (2005). (PDF-4)
Pross, A. On the chemical nature and origin of teleonomy. Origins Life Evol. Bios. 35, 383-394 (2005). (PDF-5)
Coote, M.L., Pross, A., and
Radom , L. Understanding alkyl substituent effects in R–O bond
dissociation reactions in open- and closed-shell systems, Chapter in
Fundamental World of Quantum Chemistry: A Tribute to the Memory of Per-Olov Lowdin, Vol. 3, Eds: E.J. Brandas and
E.S. Kryachko, Kluwer,
Dordrecht, 2004.
Pross, A. Stability in Chemistry and Biology. Life as a Kinetic
State of Matter. Pure Appl. Chem. 77, 1905-1921
(2005). (PDF-6)
Pross, A. How Can a Chemical System act Purposefully? Bridging between Life and
Non-life. J. Phys. Org. Chem. 21, 724-728
(2008). (PDF-7)
Pross, A. Seeking the chemical roots of
Darwinism: Bridging between chemistry and biology, Chem. Eur. J. 15,
8374-8381 (2009). (PDF-8)
Wagner, N., Pross, A., Tannenbaum, E.,
Selection advantage of metabolic over non-metabolic
replicators: A kinetic analysis, BioSystems 99,
126 - 129 (2010). (PDF-9).
Pross, A. Open Questions on the Origin of Life:
Commentary on "Plausibility of RNA World" Origins Life Evol. Bios. 40, 434-437 (2010).
Pross A. Open Questions on the
Origin of Life: Commentary on "Life as a Unity or Confederacy" Origins
Life Evol. Bios. 40, 478-479 (2010).
Wagner, N., Pross,
A. The Nature of Stability in Replicating Systems. Entropy 13,
518-527 (2011). (PDF-10)
Pross, A. Toward a general theory of evolution: Extending
Darwinian theory to inanimate matter. J. Systems Chem. 2,
1 (2011). (PDF-11)
Pross A. How does biology emerge
from chemistry? Origins Life Evol. Bios. 42, 433-444 (2012).
Pross A, Pascal R. The Origin of Life: what we
know, what we can know and what we will never know. Open Biol. 3,
120190 (2013).
A. Pross, Dynamic
Kinetic Stability as a Conceptual Bridge Linking Chemistry to Biology Current Organic Chemistry, Special issue on
“Prebiotic Chemistry”. 17, 1702-3
(2013).
A. Pross, The
evolutionary origin of biological function and complexity, J.
Mol. Evol. 76, 185-191
(2013).
R. Pascal, A. Pross,
and J.D. Sutherland, Towards an
evolutionary theory of the origin of life based on kinetics and thermodynamics.
Open Biol 3: 130156 (2013) http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsob.130156
R. Pascal, A. Pross, The nature and mathematical basis for material stability in the
chemical and biological worlds, J.
Systems Chem. 5, 3 (2014).
R.
Pascal and A. Pross, Stability and its manifestation
in the chemical and biological worlds, Chem. Comm. 51, 16160
(2015).
A.Pross, Physical Organic Chemistry and the
Origin of Life Problem: A Personal Perspective, Isr. J. Chem. 56,
83 (2016).
R.
Pascal and A. Pross, The logic of life, Origins
Life Evol. Bios.
46, 507-513 (2016).
R.
Pascal and A. Pross, A Roadmap toward
Synthetic Protolife, Syn. Letts. 27, A-F
(2016); DOI: 10.1055/s-0036-1589403.