Gargi Mitra-Delmotte, France - ICMF-13

Brief profile: My formal institutional career can be summed up as: MSc (Org. Chemistry) 1988,
University of Delhi; PhD. Biochemistry, University of Delhi South Campus, Delhi 1996 (under
(Late) Prof.B.K.Bachhawat); and CSIR Research Associate (in University of Delhi, South
Campus, and then in National Institute of Immunology, Delhi) till 2001, when I quit for family
(marriage) reasons to come to Reunion, where I live.
But when I started work again around 2006-7, I branched off to another area. [For example my
PhD thesis --In vitro and in vivo stabilization of exogenous enzymes delivered free or in liposomal
formulations by conjugation with hydrophilic polymers-- does seem remote from the Origins of
Life (OOL) area]. So far I have been working as an Independent Researcher, depending on my
Father for physics inputs. Prof.Michael J.Russell of JPL, NASA has provided inspiration and
constant support --data, ideas, key papers -- in this endeavour.
My colleague (and Father), Emeritus Physics, University of Delhi, Prof. Asoke N. Mitra's
suggestion that magnetic fields could help coherence effects and act as an important ingredient
at a hierarchy of levels in the era of life's origins inspired our study since 2007. Within weeks of
posting paper 1 (in list below, arXiv:0710.0220v1 [cond-mat.soft]) on arXiv, it was presented by
Zeeya Merali of New Scientist at Paul Davies’s Conference on quantum effects in biology at
Arizona State University, Tempe, where it received attention [see Merali Z (2007) Was life forged
in a quantum crucible? The New Scientist, 196(2633), 6-7,
http://www.nystar.state.ny.us/innews/pdf/ns071206.pdf ]. Since then a few papers (mostly invited
and peer reviewed) have been published; the magnetic theme with its control mechanism as a
field has been extended to join up with the role of Quantum Electrodynamics (c.f. Del Giudice et
al) in paper 7; this year a few posters were presented in the Gordon Research Seminar and the
Gordon Research Conference, and the Lyon workshop on Origins of Life.
1) Mitra-Delmotte G., Mitra, A.N. (2007) Can magnetism-assisted quasiperiodic structures in
Russell FeS ‘bubbles’ offer a quantum coherent origin of life? http://arxiv.org/abs/0710.0220
2) Mitra-Delmotte, G., and Mitra, A. N., (2010). Magnetism, entropy, and the first nanomachines.
Cent. Eur. J. Phys. 8(3), 259-272 (http://arxiv.org/abs/0904.4845 )
3) Mitra-Delmotte, G., and Mitra, A. N. (2010b). “Magnetism, FeS colloids, and the origins of life”.
in The Legacy of Alladi Ramakrishnan in the Mathematical Sciences, ed. K. Alladi, J.R. Klauder,
C.R. Rao (New York: Springer), 529-564 (http://arxiv.org/abs/0809.3316 ).
4) Mitra-Delmotte G. (2010) Magnetic Minerals, Life, and its Emergence. In, Magnetite: Structure,
Properties and Applications (Ed Angrove D.M.), Nova Publishers, 978-1-61761-839-0
5) Mitra-Delmotte G., Mitra, A.N. (2010) 'Genesis': A takeover from field-responsive matter?
arXiv:1008.2362v1 [physics.bio-ph] (http://arxiv.org/abs/1008.2362 )

6) Mitra A.N., Mitra-Delmotte G. (2011) Consciousness: A Direct Link to Life's Origins? J Cosmol,
14, 4792-4799 (http://journalofcosmology.com/Consciousness110.html)
7) Gargi Mitra-Delmotte and Asoke Nath Mitra (2011) Softening the “Crystal-Scaffold for Life’s
Emergence. Physics Research International
http://www.hindawi.com/journals/phys/2012/232864/ref/ arXiv:1108.0309v1 [cond-mat.soft]
8) Mitra-Delmotte, G., Mitra, A.N. (2012) Field-control, phase-transitions, and life’s emergence.
Frontiers in
Physiology http://www.frontiersin.org/Journal/Abstract.aspx?s=454&name=fractal_physiology&A
RT_DOI=10.3389/fphys.2012.00366