About The Gene Emergence Project

The Gene Emergence Project is one of the programs of The Origin-of-Life Science Foundation, Inc., a 501(c)3 science and education foundation with corporate headquarters near NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center just off the Washington, D. C. Beltway in Greenbelt, MD. 113 Hedgewood Drive, 20770-1610 Fax 301-441-8135

The Origin-of-Life Science Foundation should not be confused with “creation science”or “intelligent design” groups. It has no religious affiliations of any kind, nor are we connected in any way with any New Age, Gaia, or “Science and Spirit” groups. The Origin-of-Life Science Foundation, Inc. is a science and education foundation encouraging the pursuit of natural-process explanations and mechanisms within nature. The Foundation’s main thrust is to encourage interdisciplinary, multi-institutional research projects by theoretical biophysicists and origin-of-life researchers specifically into the origin of genetic information/instructions/message/recipe in living organisms. By what mechanism didinitial genetic code arise in nature? The primary interest of The Gene Emergence Project is to investigate the derivation of functional monomeric sequencing at the rigid covalent-bond level. This must occur prior to any selection for phenotypic fitness.

Fitting with the project’s highly interdisciplinary nature, its advisors include biochemists, molecular biologists, biophysicists, information theorists, artificial life and intelligence experts, exo/astrobiologists, mathemeticians, and origin-of-life researchers in many related fields. Please feel free to e-mail or write us opinions, advice, and critiques, particularly of the tentative rules themselves. We are developing as broad and as deep a root system within the scientific community as possible.

The Foundation believes that advisors’ personal metaphysical persuasions are none of our business. Science is about “How?” Questions addressing “How?” are about mechanism. As a science foundation, we are interested in models of mechanism consistent with naturally-occuring biochemical phenomena and sound information theory. We welcome as advisors competent scientists from widely respected universities and laboratories around the world whose interest and experience extends to origin-of-life queries.

We believe the judging is at least as critical a question as the audited financials underwriting of the Prize. The decision of whether to award the Origin-of-Life Prize ® must rest not with the Foundation, but with the most internationally respected origin-of-life researchers themselves in accordance with the published rules and requirements. Scientists’ votes on any given submission will be independently audited the same as the Foundation’s financial position.

The Foundation welcomes tax-deductible donations to be used for the promotion of scientific inquiry into the origin of genetic prescriptive information (instruction).

The Board of Directors consists largely of administrators/fundraisers rather than life-origin bench scientists. Judging of the Prize is to be done by the scientific community itself, not by the Foundation. No one at the Foundation has a vote on any submission.

Board of Directors of The Origin-of-Life Foundation, Inc. include

Morris W. Hedge, Chairman; Mathematician/Computer Scientist, recently retired from the Department of Defense, Fort Meade, MD

Reginald C. Orem, Vice Chairman, Retired Educator, College Park, MD

Paul L. Abel, Secretary; Owner, “We Train Computers,” Columbia, MD

George Stephens, Ph.D., Teller of Elections, retired Maryland University professor, Adelphi Md.

Dr. David L. Abel, Treasurer; Theoretical Biology; ProtoBioCybernetics and BioSemiotics; Life-origin research specifically into the emergence of initial genes; Director, The Gene Emergence Project, Greenbelt, MD

Chris Esh, Ph.D. Caldwell, Idaho

Sue E. Meeks, CEO, Integrated Financial Analysts, LTD., Potomac, Va.