Year: 2022

SO ENDS part I on the bombshell publication that suggested that memory could be eaten. This continues next weekend. Quite how the information contained in a memory gets codified into any molecule has been a confounding topic for decades, in part because memories tend to be extremely specific, and in part because they are so plentiful. View in LinkedIn

TOWARDS ABIOTIC LIFE. "Scientists in the UK and Malaysia have created a self-assembling rotaxane that can replicate itself. The result may lead to the development of autonomous chemical systems that mimic cellular processes." https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/rotaxane-raises-the-bar-for-self-replicating-chemical-systems/9161.article View in LinkedIn

"SELF-REPLICATION occurs when an informational molecule (such as a nucleic acid) directs the spontaneous synthesis of a replica of itself." http://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-3-642-11274-4_1423 View in LinkedIn

"MECHANISMS for self-replication can be autocatalytic, where a molecule acts as a template to make a direct copy of itself, or cross-catalytic, where two or more molecules of different informational content amplify one another." http://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-3-642-11274-4_1423 View in LinkedIn

SELF-REPLICATING MOLECULES. "The “self” is now clearly defined; however, it can be a single self-replicating molecule or a network of related cooperators. Here we are using the example of RNA as the informational polymer, but the same conclusions were to apply if other polymers, or even inorganic lattices or compositional sets of macromolecules such as lipids, were the ancestral genotypes." http://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/2/4/313/htm View in LinkedIn

BOXES AND BEHAVIOR. "Clearly, the advent of compartmentalization (protocellular life) would further enhance the establishment of a bounded genotype, thereby firmly entrenching behavior. The key to this first aspect of behavioral chemistry is that the information is physically bondable such that the possible states of the system can be quantized (discrete)." http://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/2/4/313/htm View in LinkedIn

DAISY CHAIN BEHAVIOR. "The molecular paradigm views behavior as composed of discrete units (responses) occurring at moments in time and strung together in chains to make up complex performances. The discrete pieces are held together as a result of association by contiguity." https://lnkd.in/dzst9qf View in LinkedIn

KINETIC TRAPS. "The second process that allows behavioral chemistry is the real possibility that macromolecules end up in kinetic traps during their folding. When the lifetimes of these traps are of the same order of magnitude as the time in which these molecules need to function, then a second type of behavioral expression becomes possible." http://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/2/4/313/htm View in LinkedIn

Road verges 'last refuge' for plants - conservation charity View in LinkedIn

MOLECULAR DECISION-MAKING. "The evolution of behavior. Quantum mechanical and thermal fluctuations in single molecules get incorporated into informational polymers that can then display behavioral chemistry. Natural selection operating on these molecules leads to chemical choice, then to heritable decision making, and ultimately to behaviors ascribed to intelligent organisms." http://www.mdpi.com/2075-1729/2/4/313/htm View in LinkedIn