Abstract
The flagellar motor’s structure and function are theorised to stem from vortex physics rather than traditional evolutionary processes. It forms through a fractal electrodynamic template that accumulates energy, creating an organised vortex field where biological materials assemble into the motor. The motor operates not by kinetic forces but through complex vortex dynamics. While often deemed irreducibly complex by evolutionary standards, it may instead arise naturally from these physical laws. The interplay of electromagnetic energy and water’s unique properties, facilitates the motor’s construction, operation and maintenance without requiring intelligent design. A new principle of the movement of water is described as arising from an internal store of electromagnetic vortex energy. This new principle is suggested as an explanation for the circulation of the blood.
Hypothesis
The flagellar motor is created via the laws of vortex physics. It is not built a single molecule at a time but assembled from a single fractal electrodynamic ‘field template’. An initially simple vortex field accumulates energy, forming a centripetal energy cascade which fractalises into smaller vortices and consequent refinements of structure.
Biological material is drawn into the vortex and physical structures resembling the vortex template are assembled. The charged nature of the molecules themselves gives further structure to the assembly and a functional flagellar motor emerges.
The strength of molecular bonds gives a permanence to the whole organ and a continued accumulation of free energy is used to maintain and power the whole machine.
Energy accumulates at the centre of the vortex and drives the molecules in a circular motion. The propulsion of the flagellum arises from the total sum of the electromagnetic field activity within, and in the vicinity of, the motor apparatus.
This is not quite the same as a centrally driven motor propelling itself by ‘kinetic’ forces. The motor is driven by forces and energy external to itself as is a toy boat flowing down a river, with the bacteria itself only having control over some sort of ‘rudder’, a steering mechanism consisting of modulations of its own internal electromagnetic field.
Overall structure
The image of a tornado below shows striking similarities in structure to the flagellar motor:
- Conical overall shape
- Counter rotating layers
- Coaxial structure
- Centripetal accumulation of energy
- Centripetal movement of matter
- Helical structures
- Fractal energy flow
- Movement relative to land surface
These features and the overall assembly of the tornado are not constructed via some genetic building process but arise directly, immediately and holistically, from the laws of physics.
Moreover, the laws of electrodynamics are the same at small scales as at large and so it is at least plausible that some electric field structure resembling the above should be capable of arising spontaneously within biological systems.
This, then, is the environment within which the flagellar motor is constructed and maintained. The assertion here is that a supervening bio-field is responsible for causing such a structure to arise in the first place and for this to happen where the ambient cellular substrate contains the requisite building materials: The nature of the bio-field
Evolution and irreducible complexity
The bacteria flagellum pictured above is said to be irreducibly complex from the point of view of evolutionary theory, meaning that it is not possible for it to have evolved in a piecemeal fashion by sequential mutations and natural selection.
This sounds reasonable, but as seen above, the basic structure did not arise from mutations and did evolve piecemeal over millions of years. A tornado can self-construct in a matter of hours or even minutes.
Complexity is ‘relative’
Complexity is not absolute but relative. Something which seems complex according to one set of criteria is seen as simple from a different set of criteria. The flagellar motor looks complicated in diagrams but likely arises naturally from vortex currents.
An inappropriate measure of complexity makes evolution of such structures seem impossible and only serves to fuel a useless debate between intelligent design and ‘order from randomness’.
Evolution via randomness
Advocates of classical evolutionary theory insist that certain parts of the motor could have evolved elsewhere to fulfil some unrelated function and then ported in to the motor to speed up development. This seems highly unlikely and in any case does not address the problems of actual construction, which must be via an organised collection of forces.
The following concepts are not concrete methods of construction:
- Randomness
- Mutation
- Billions of years
- Natural selection
- A desired end-point
Intelligent design
A competing view to that of incremental evolution is that the flagellar motor is the result of ‘intelligent design’. However, a design still needs to be feasible according to the laws of physics and it needs to implemented somehow. We still require some physical process by which to assemble the motor.
Again, the following concepts are not concrete methods of physical construction:
- Design
- Intelligent design
- Miracles
- Theology
- An assumed or desired ‘purpose’
Low Reynolds number flow
Bacteria exist at a smaller scale than humans and the physics of water at such a scale is much different to that to which we are accustomed and are therefore highly counter-intuitive.
Low Reynolds flow is one where viscous forces dominate over inertial forces and momentum is irrelevant. In the video below we hear that if we were to experience such a flow at our human scale of existence then it would be as if we were swimming through roofing tar whilst dragging a 10 tonne truck.
Nobody is going to get very far pulling any sort of truck through roofing tar and so something else must be happening.
Non-inertial flow?
The video explains that a human swimmer propels herself by pushing water behind her. A backwards force is countered by an equal and opposing reaction and she moves forward. Momentum is conserved and the flow can be said to be largely ‘inertial’ or maybe ‘Newtonian’.
Low Reynolds flow is completely different; the viscous forces prevent inertial flow and there is no chance to explain forward motion by any exchange of momentum.
When a bacterium moves it does not push water behind it but instead drags a considerable layer of thick gel-like water around with it. This layer can extend a comparatively large distance. It appears at first sight that the motion violates the laws of momentum. The flow is ‘non-Newtonian’; a complete organism together with a layer of water moves around with no apparent propulsion mechanism.
In the case of a swimmer, water is pushed backwards and the swimmer moves forwards. In the case of bacteria, both water and organism move forward together.
Vortex flow
Both rotifers and vorticella feed by creating vortex systems within the water. The vortices seem to appear or disappear instantly, presumably dependent upon some signal from the organisms themselves.
The zooplankton seem to have the ability to move matter at a distance from themselves and to organise it into a rotational flow in order to bring food within their ambit; rather than move towards the food they simply command it to come to them.
This phenomenon seems unlikely to be orchestrated by Newtonian (kinetic) flow. How do the microorganisms coordinate a large vortex at a distance from themselves and start and stop it almost instantaneously?
To better understand the nature of the interaction between the micro-organisms and the surrounding water, we need to understand more about the nature of water itself.
Pollack’s water engine
If a hydrophilic tube is placed in a bath of water, a global flow of water immediately ensues, with the tube at the centre of a vortex structure and with the speed of flow dependent upon input of infrared radiation.
No organic material is present and no flagella are needed to instigate such movement. Instead it arises spontaneously from the physical properties of water alone.
Gerald Pollack demonstrates:
A full hypothesis for this phenomenon is given here: Pollack’s water engine
The basic idea is that infrared light is converted to an indigenous electromagnetic field which naturally forms a vortex topology. The vortex system accumulates energy which is then used to drive the flow of molecules in the same vortex pattern.
Whatever the precise explanation, we can hypothesise that such dynamic, self-organising vortex structures form an important part of the aqueous environment of the bacteria and even of intra-cellular water.
To regard the bacteria as simply swimming through roofing tar is somewhat at odds with what we observe, which is to say, two-way interactions between the organisms and a dynamic, energetic and almost ‘living’ water structure.
Where does the energy come from?
The vorticella are seen apparently starting up a large vortex flow in order to get at the food. A whole area of water spins like a cartwheel and then suddenly stops when the movement of the cilia ceases.
Many questions:
- How does this happen?
- Where does the energy come from to instigate the movement?
- Where does the energy go when it stops?
- What happened to conservation of angular momentum?
- If the spinning stops because of viscosity then how did it start so quickly?
- What is ‘viscosity?
- How is the flow organised into a ‘circle’?
- Is this ‘action at a distance’?
Given what we now know concerning the basic nature of water flow we can say:
- The energy is already there in the water, already partially organised
- The energy is electromagnetic in nature
- Organisation of energy into vortices is basic, natural, fundamental and inevitable
- Organisation of the energy field precedes the flow of water
- The flow is somehow driven by the energy field
- The vorticella work by electromagnetically triggering the energy field into action and not via direct pushing of the water molecules themselves
To reiterate, the rotational movement of the water that we see in the video clip cannot be instigated merely by kinetic forces and cannot be explained by classical theory. This is ruled out by the description of low Reynolds flow as like ‘swimming through roofing tar whilst dragging a 10 tonne truck’.
Energy transduction via vortex motion
In another experiment from Pollack and others, the temperature of a jar of water is measured and then energy is added to the water by stirring. The temperature of the water has dropped, implying that input energy has been sequestered somehow and that even the existing heat energy of the water has been somehow transduced to something more stable.
Energy is no longer moving in a dissipative manner as ‘heat’ but has been stored in some other form by the vortex motion of the water.
What is viscosity?
Viscosity arises from electromagnetic resistance when mechanical forces try to push the flow against the default vortex structure of the water.
This makes sense from watching the video of low Reynolds flow; water seems tar-like and movement sluggish until vortices are involved and then suddenly flow is rapid, structured and capable of instantaneous changes in ‘state’.
The spontaneous assembly of biological ingredients
In the short clip below a disorganised collection of ‘building blocks’ is assembled en masse into a physical brain.
The function of the flagellar motor
The standard view of the flagellar motor is that it spins according to some energy source and in doing so, imparts some backward momentum to the surrounding water which results in forward motion for the bacteria. However, if we accept the assertions above then we are forced into very different conclusions.
The mere placing of a static molecular structure into a drop of water will organise a large area of electromagnetic field into a vortex structure in the same way that a hydrophilic tube will organise Pollack’s water engine. The field has the capacity to move the water around using local ‘vortex’ energy.
A flagellar motor thus sits at the centre of a local electromagnetic vortex where energy spirals inwards towards the motor, making itself available as a energy supply. The inward spiralling energy is modified by the structure of the flagella and moves the water around the motor in a spiral fashion, thus causing the flagella to rotate.
This provides the stable base-state of the whole apparatus and serves as a reference point against which all subsequent actions are to be compared.
These actions are ‘fundamental’ and arise from the basic laws of physics and the newly described properties of water above. The motor will now function by making small perturbations of the local electric field. Such perturbations will spread and amplify to instigate meaningful changes in the wider electromagnetic firmament which result in movement of the organism as a whole.
Instantaneous state changes
The flagellar motor is said to be capable of almost instantaneous changes of rotational direction. How can this be?
An instantaneous change of state of any sort is a common characteristic of electromagnetic fields but not of the inertial flow or rotation of matter. This is further evidence that all motion in this environment is preceded by, and instigated by, electromagnetic field activity.
‘Gravitational’ flow
In the clip where a bacterium appears to instigate vortex flow at a distance, the flow seems to stop and start simultaneously at all points in the vortex structure. What we don’t see is any sort of propagation or wave effect, just a sudden start and stop of a relatively large vortex system.
This is consistent with the idea from Pollack’s water engine that an energetic field is operating on the water molecules at all locations simultaneously rather than having them being pushed around. Moreover, the process is reminiscent of the action of gravity whereby an object accelerates irrespective of its size or inertial mass and at all points simultaneously. Momentum and energy appear to come from nowhere, with no mechanical transfer, and in the case of the vorticella, this seems to be under control of the organism itself.
Non-Newtonian flow
In conventional swimming, forward momentum is gained by pushing a mass of water backwards. An action has resulted in an equal and opposite reaction and thus momentum is conserved and Newton’s third law is obeyed.
However, in the flows described above, there is no obvious pushing backwards of a mass of water and the flow appears to be ‘non-Newtonian’, it appears to violate Newton’s third law.
This has been noted by researchers in Japan:
Odd Elasto-hydrodynamics: Non-Reciprocal Living Material in a Viscous Fluids – Ishimoto, Moreau, Yasuda
This study explores a violation of Newton’s third law in motile active agents, by considering non-reciprocal mechanical interactions known as odd elasticity. By extending the description of odd elasticity to a nonlinear regime, we present a general framework for the swimming dynamics of active elastic materials in low-Reynolds-number fluids, such as wavelike patterns observed in eukaryotic cilia and flagella – Ishimoto et al.
Note that if an apple is held above the Earth’s surface and dropped, it will begin to fall immediately and with no apparent equal and opposite reaction, no requirement to eject mass backwards.
Furthermore, there is no empirical evidence of an instantaneous reaction from the Earth itself and so even the phenomenon of gravitational attraction can be said to be in immediate violation of Newton’s third law.
Through simple solvable models and the analysis of Chlamydomonas flagella waveforms and experimental data for human sperm, we demonstrate the wide applicability of a nonlocal and non-reciprocal description of internal interactions within living materials in viscous fluids, offering a unified framework for active and living matter physics. – Ishimoto et al.
The circulation of the blood
Postmortem arterial blood flow dynamics: video
In this video (screenshot below) the heart is stopped and an instantaneous reaction is seen in the arterial blood flow.
The blood stops flowing but resumes a section of artery at a time with local flow seemingly independent of adjacent flows. Flow in a section of an artery will start or stop instantaneously in a manner visually similar to the start and stop of a water vortex caused by a vorticella. The blood is not being pushed around by pressure from the heart or anywhere else and so we should ask what causes it and where does the energy come from?
The blood is surely propelled by an electromagnetic field but we are initially torn between two possibilities:
- An electromagnetic field generated by the body penetrates the artery walls and is responsible for ‘forcing’ the blood to move along the blood vessels
- An energy field resides within the blood itself and merely needs to be organised appropriately to propel the blood around the system
Given the discussion above, we can now say that the second option is far more likely. Energy and ‘information’ are decoupled as is essential for a control system; we cannot have the rate of flow of blood depend only upon the amount of energy available.
Energy flows in a toroidal loop as with the water engine, thereby ensuring a continuous supply of energy to every part of the body whether it is of immediate use or not. Bio-field instructions from the heart are then able to start or stop the flow in a similar fashion to the vorticella water wheel. The circulatory system is fully ‘cognitive’ and aware of the effects of its own actions. If a bacterium can have this capacity then so can a human heart. The bio-field of the heart
Summary
The flagellar motor does not need an intelligent design for manufacture and can be constructed in a matter of seconds given:
- A suitable energetic field environment
- Centripetal energy accumulation
- The requisite biological material
- Higher level instructions from a morphogenic template
Both maintenance and function of the motor are dependent upon the accumulation of electromagnetic energy of some sort.
We are learning that even plain water has properties which are highly conducive to the origins, maintenance and functioning of organic life. Water naturally forms a dynamic toroidal flow which leads to centripetal energy accumulation and electromagnetic forces strong enough to bond bio-molecules.
The patterns of flow of water at a microscopic level are inadequately explained by inertial and viscous forces alone and require the influence of a dynamic vortex field.
The water seems to obey a hitherto undescribed principle; it has the ability to store energy in a ‘fractal vortex system’ and to allow its release in response to appropriate signalling from a living system.