Graham Cairns-Smith

Alexander Graham Cairns-Smith FRSE (24 November 1931 – 26 August 2016) was an organic chemist and molecular biologist at the University of Glasgow.^[1] He studied at the University of Edinburgh, where he gained a Ph.D. in Chemistry (1957).^[2] He was most famous for his controversial 1985 book Seven Clues to the Origin of Life.

The book popularized a hypothesis he began to develop in the mid-1960s—that self-replication of clay crystals in solution might provide a simple intermediate step between biologically inert matter and organic life. He inspired other ideas about chemical evolution, including the Miller–Urey experiment and the RNA World, all of which are hypotheses that have played important roles in attempts to understand the origin of life.

Cairns-Smith also published on the evolution of consciousness, in Evolving the Mind (1996), favoring a role for quantum mechanics in human thought.^[3] He died on 26 August 2016.^[4]

^ Who's who of British Scientists. 1971. ISBN 9780582114647.
^ Cairns Smith, A. G. (1957). "Studies in the acridine series". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
^ Dennett, Daniel (1996). "Quantum Incoherence: Review of Cairns-Smith, Evolving the Mind". Nature. 381 (6582): 486. Bibcode:1996Natur.381..486T. doi:10.1038/381486a0. S2CID 39799295.
^ "Cairns-Smith". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2022.

[1] Who's who of British Scientists. 1971. ISBN 9780582114647.

[2] Cairns Smith, A. G. (1957). "Studies in the acridine series". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

[3] Dennett, Daniel (1996). "Quantum Incoherence: Review of Cairns-Smith, Evolving the Mind". Nature. 381 (6582): 486. Bibcode:1996Natur.381..486T. doi:10.1038/381486a0. S2CID 39799295.

[4] "Cairns-Smith". Telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2022.

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