Category: Uncategorized

ADAPTING CHEMICAL NETWORKS. "We cannot confirm previous claims that autocatalytic sets of organic polymer molecules could undergo evolution in any interesting sense by themselves. Instead, we discovered that if general conditions are satisfied, the accumulation of adaptations in chemical reaction networks can occur. These conditions are the existence of rare reactions producing viable cores (analogous to a genotype), that sustains a molecular periphery (analogous to a phenotype)." https://lnkd.in/euzMX5X View in LinkedIn

MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS. "However, using the minimal model of polymer chemistry as a popular example, we outline the very general requirements that enable reaction networks to act as units of evolution, whatever the underlying chemistry used." https://lnkd.in/euzMX5X View in LinkedIn

WE ARE MADE OF STARS. “More than ninety percent of the universe is composed of hydrogen and helium. Both elements have been around since shortly after the beginning of the universe.” https://lnkd.in/dK6WMcp View in LinkedIn

UNLIKELY OUTCOME. "Can autocatalytic sets, as originally conceived, be units of evolution? Our answer is no." https://lnkd.in/euzMX5X View in LinkedIn

STUNNING REALIZATION. “All the carbon required for life to exist is synthesized in stars.” (Professor Sir Fred Hoyle, brilliant deceased chair of the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge University, whose members included Stephen Hawking). https://lnkd.in/d84mun4 View in LinkedIn

UNITS OF EVOLUTION. "As John Maynard Smith put it: a population of units of evolution is "any population of entities with the properties of multiplication (one entity can give rise to many), variation (entities are not all alike, and some kinds are more likely to survive and multiply than others), and heredity (like begets like) will evolve." https://lnkd.in/euzMX5X View in LinkedIn

EVOLUTION OF STARS. “The idea that stars change as they age and that" "these changes in turn alter their local environment and the chemical" "makeup of their parent galaxy — an idea that has developed only within" "the past fifty years — stands in the same relation to astronomy as the" "Darwinian revolution does to biology. It is a conceptual breakthrough that" "makes possible the modern understanding of the origin, evolution, and " "fate of the universe.” https://lnkd.in/d5GTUVD View in LinkedIn

HITCHHIKER’S LAMENT. “The first ten million years were the " "worst," said Marvin, "and the second ten million years, they were " "the worst too. The third ten million years I didn't enjoy at all. " "After that I went into a bit of a decline." https://en.m.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE considers the evolution of the stuff that life is made of, namely carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur, also called the biogenic elements, the primary elements of life. Where did these elements come from, and how were they made? View in LinkedIn

SONG OF DARWIN. "The more I study nature, the more I become impressed […] that the contrivances and beautiful adaptations [acquired through natural selection] transcend in an incomparable degree [those] which the most fertile imagination of the most imaginative man could suggest with unlimited time at his disposal." http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982214003881 View in LinkedIn