Scientific Theory — Dr. Bruce Damer, Scientist, Designer, Author, Founder and CEO of DigitalSpace — The Origin of Life and Virtual Space Exploration

Dr. Bruce Damer, scientist, designer, author, as well as founder and CEO of DigitalSpace (digitalspace.com), provides a thorough overview and analysis of the origin of life as well as his vast experimentation in the area of physics-based simulations for space research. Dr. Damer is a distinguished computer scientist and active associate researcher in the Department of Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Dr. Damer’s work with Prof. David Deamer led to the publishing of “Coupled Phases and Combinatorial Selection in Fluctuating Hydrothermal Pools: A Scenario to Guide Experimental Approaches to the Origin of Cellular Life” and, an article in the journal, Life, “A Field Trip to the Archaean in Search of Darwin’s Warm Little Pond.” Their collaborative research, work, and publishing has created a surge of new interest in the subject of life’s origin and kept the scientific community buzzing. Dr. Damer talks about the origin of life and his theories. He discusses Darwin’s “warm little pond” theory, which Dr. Damer and Prof. Deamer have updated. As he explains, when you have a situation in which warm water is filling up an area, then draining, in a cyclical way, this creates an opportunity for life, an opportunity to make all sorts of biopolymers in a primordial soup as he refers to it. He discusses his research and experimentation that was able to create RNA, which is a necessary polymer of life.  Dr. Damer’s company, DigitalSpace is an innovative international corporation with a focus on the creation of virtual worlds for industrial design engineering, education as well as public outreach. In fact, it was DigitalSpace that produced notable first rounds of internet-based 3D avatar applications. From virtual events and tradeshows to advanced learning spaces for K-12 and college, complex corporate information sharing spaces for efficiency, and of course virtual worlds for artists, DigitalSpace is innovating in multiple industries. The science expert states that the barriers to creating lifeforms in a lab are time and the amount of experiments that would be necessary. He theorizes that life often tried to start then failed over historical time periods. He details random selection and mutation, and the power of a network. He describes in detail the network effect, and elaborates on progenotes, which are the last universal common ancestors, also called the last universal ancestor. Thus, as he theorizes our common ancestor was actually a network. Dr. Damer recounts many and various experiments that he has been involved with in regard to life and its origin. He provides a detailed overview of experimentation that has occurred regarding 3D modeling and physics-based simulations for a wide range of space missions, and he talks about their upcoming work with cubesats, which are miniaturized satellites for space research. Since the beginning of the 21st century, DigitalSpace has been an important player in key contracts with Adobe, NASA and other federal agencies, as well as prime contractors to produce a myriad of advanced virtual environments for space mission design and training, and so much more.