Why and how retired ukrainian physicist went to Molecular Origins of Life CAS Conference in Munich
Until recently, I could not find other practical implications of my «general theory of everything :-)» than recommendations (in the presence of great uncertainty in a difficult situation) to choose the direction to which (as far as possible) independent “random” factors push you - because the force in question is acting by "Hands of improbability," that is, creates the possibility of extremely rare (in ordinary life) coincidences of circumstances.
These coincidences generate (or manifest themselves as?) Taleb's “Black swans”: everything goes “in linear mode”, and suddenly (often from independent sources) events occur, information appears and it becomes clear what to do, where to go (or what and how it's time to change).
Further, a brief summary of the personal experience of the author in the form of a table
What was and what was going on
1970-1072. I am going to finish school (in the USSR) with a gold medal, i.e. to enter the university, it is enough to pass one (main) exam for “excellent”. Where to go and what to devote yourself to - physics, chemistry, history, economics, law? - everything is interesting
My school friend (2 years older than me) entered the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (the first case in our town for 25 years before and one of the three over the next 45 years) - and brought me their prospectus (booklet). There were:
-from the third year students work in research institutes;
- even gold medalists pass entrance exams: 2 in physics and 2 in mathematics;
- they provide a hostel to everybody,
- they have an additional day a week without classes and so on!
I will go to study at MIPT!
1981-1982 I am finishing my (top secret – this is USSR :-( Ph.D. thesis, and the prospect of being in a military camp behind a barbed wire in a forests of a secret research institute is quite realistic.
Moscow and other big cities research institutes are only for guys with appropriate domicile registration
On the desk of my supervisor, I notice his travel certificate - to Kharkiv, to the Military Engineering Radio-Technical Academy of Anti-Aircraft Defence. It turns out that there (100km from my school:) are also engaged in lasers and nonlinear optics (of course this is a secret, and they also write the word “laser” only by hand in their top-secret reports:). I ask him to find out if there is a need for a young (not military) Ph.D. from MIPT.
I’m a senior research fellow in MERTA AAD and in 4 year thanks to comedy adventures I got a mortgage apartment in Kharkiv
1986. I don’t like secrecy and military very much so I began to think about the new job just after 3 obligatory years of work in MERTA.
In Moscow (!) I met a professor of Kharkiv TU, which told me that their physics chair is concerned with a laser laboratory creation: there is money, but not a person. Why? In the USSR, it was not enough to have money, they also needed permits to spend it, besides it lasers were made at secret factories...
New series of comedy adventures — and I am NTU «KhPI» assistant professor.
1991-1993. Laser laboratory is half ready, I am an associate professor, we began we contract for research and development, I write “my own "general theory of everything:-)”.
USSR crashes, hardware purchases stop, many physicists go abroad – why should I do so? Who needs there my dozen patent sertificates (unnamed because of secrecy :-( ? My family does not want to emigrate.
OK, we stay here! In a few years everything will be fine :-))
2007. I have been looking for a wholesale buyer for about 10 years for my "Printing-on-anything" technology, my age is like Ray Kroc's when he met the McDonald's brothers
Just on my birthday, I receive a letter from Los Angeles, written in Russian from an employee of Avry Dennison with a Russian surname, expressing interest in my know-how
NDA, samples exchange, two years of correspondence, some understanding of the USA IP business
2017, late August-early September. My next five-year contract with KhPI is due to end in June 2019. And in October, they are going to cancel the "scientific" pension, to which I was entitled on August 13, 2017, with 6 monthly salaries in case of dismissal with the transition to it.
The KhPI administration offers me, like other Physics Chair associate professors who have reached retirement age, to "voluntarily" switch to a quarter rate because of the small students' enrollment ("demographic pit" :). Should I take my honestly earned two years in advance, or earn just the same by going to a job for two years (after their "gratitude" for 30 years of blameless service)?
So I make this site and think about how to make SEO to ixyt.info ( clearly "hostile" for now to search engines but agreeing to sponsor my experiment if successful).
2018 - I met the post about the CAS Conference "Molecular Origins of Life" in Munich (with zero registration fee)
a) EU visas for Ukrainians are canceled and b) low-cost airlines appear in Ukraine, that is, my modest resources are enough to go to the conference
The chance to hear competent criticism cannot be missed
About the next 25 years the hypotesis discussed (with abiogenesis enclosed:)was a background for some entertaining and intriguing problems with their cute beautiful solutions seem to have no common with the origin of life (like"printing on anything",Compact Boiler Design/Technology, Technology to Reduce Foaming in a Boiler, sudden cooperations with University Paris 13 but without them there would be no initial experimental setup proposal .
***
In any small town, there is a philosopher or two who are ready to make humanity happy with their own "General Theory of Everything." The global nature of the subject of discussion requires from the author some evidence of sufficient education and sober creativity, i.e. the fact that he is not just crazy (but with references :).
Below is a photo of "author certificates" for inventions he received "in battles" with the USSR's Institute of State Patent Expertize. Most, alas, are unnamed due to Soviet secrecy:
After the USSR, collecting such papers was no longer encouraged,
newer developments (even during testing) can be seen here.2. Also, not everyone has a Soviet analog of a Ph.D. diploma in physics and mathematics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology
3. More old - diploma with distinction from the same Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Department of Physical and Quantum Electronics:
with all (but three "good") marks "excellent":
4. After two and a half years of freelancing as an SEO-specialist for ixyt.info SUDDENLY an old friend of mine said that the Problematic Laboratory of Ionic Processes (PLIP) at Kharkiv National University needs a senior research fellow with spectroscopy, optics, and general physics knowledge. A short interview - and I got hired. More of that one of their research directions - "Experimental and theoretical study of the dynamics of the processes of ion and electromagnetic irradiation of the surface of multicomponent physical objects"! Meanwhile I managed to significantly, up to "patentability", improve the "svityk" design, find a sponsor (alas, not too strong one), several people in the "support group".
PLIP has a lot of pumps, mass spectrometers, and other hardware, which directly (as for me) "asks" to be a part of "svityk" and, of course, KhNU gives more opportunities to find people with a biological background to be involved in the "assault group".
And finally - one half of the Laboratory is situated at the former building of the Military Engineering Radio-Technical Academy of Anti-Aircraft Defence - yes, that very huge (about 120x250 m) 5-9-11 floor building where I began my Kharkiv career 38 years ago. More of that - on the same floor, about 40 meters apart... Surely a part of life origin mystery is behind those steel doors :)
Can abiogenesis be without ionic processes?
ions will work hard for abiogenesis, I hope :)
Ion-photon emission as a precursor to abiogenesis ;)
Here it is clearly possible (after properly try) to give birth to life, isn't it?
Or here...
or here...
So the only "small" problem remains - to convince the boss to change the study of ion-photon emission with abiogenesis experiment...
UPD 03/12/2022.
Unfortunately, about a half of the laboratory is situated in the nothern end of Kharkiv and one room - at the very nothern building part, facing Russia. My desk was just here, to the left of the place from which the laboratory head today took the "denazification and demilitarization" result performed by "knights" from the Russian Federation...
We are created by the power (or a law) opposing entropy growth. We must generate and disseminate information to reduce entropy. This law (or force) will help to do the rest - sooner or later us or others.