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MOLECULAR FITNESS. "A simplified model of Darwinian evolution at the molecular level is studied by applying the methods of artificial chemistry. A chemical reactor (chemostat) contains molecules that are represented by binary strings, the strings being capable of replication with a probability proportional to their fitness. Moreover, the process of replication is not fully precise, sporadic mutations may produce new offspring strings, which are slightly different from their parent templates." https://lnkd.in/dS48CSs View in LinkedIn

BUILDING PROTOCELLS. "Efforts to bridge nonliving and living matter and develop protocells from scratch will rely on bottom-up self assembly with commensurate self organization of classes of molecules." https://lnkd.in/d7dZrnq View in LinkedIn

ARTIFICIAL CHEMISTRY. "This paper gives details of Squirm3, a new artificial environment based on a simple physics and chemistry that supports self-replicating molecules somewhat similar to DNA. These self-replicators emerge spontaneously from a random soup given the right conditions. Interactions between the replicators can result in mutated versions that can out-perform their parents." https://lnkd.in/dXZQRVS View in LinkedIn

DRY CHEMISTRY. "Simulating tens of thousands of atoms for days to weeks on a commodity cluster will produce a number of nanoseconds of real-time equivalent chemistry." https://lnkd.in/d7dZrnq View in LinkedIn

ARTIFICIAL CHEMISTRIES, a valuable overview for those interested. https://lnkd.in/dMJQS4i View in LinkedIn

INFLEXIBLE PLUMBING SYSTEM. "Unlike many other ectotherms, in insects, gas exchange takes place through a system of tubes, the tracheae, that lead directly to the cells of the mitochondria, where oxygen acts as an electron receptor during respiration. The exceptionally high power demands of insect flight, coupled with this gas exchange system, led early physiologists to conclude that large modern flying species may be at their performance limits." https://lnkd.in/dcXHB7K View in LinkedIn

COPIER. "A hypercycle occurs when an enduring sub-population increases in number until it becomes co-dominant with a dominant species. The species forming the enduring sub-population is not self-maintaining, but acts as a copier for the dominant species." https://lnkd.in/dryBAUG View in LinkedIn

"GIANT INSECTS, with wingspans as large as 70 cm, ruled the Carboniferous and Permian skies. Here we show, using a dataset of more than 10,500 fossil insect wing lengths, that size tracked atmospheric oxygen concentrations only for the first 150 Myr of insect evolution." https://lnkd.in/dEANyiE View in LinkedIn

PEAK OF GIGANTISM. "Gigantism as a hallmark of competitive superiority appears to have lost its luster on land after the Mesozoic in favor of alternative means of achieving dominance, especially including social organization and coordinated food-gathering." https://lnkd.in/dv_ZqB3 View in LinkedIn

LARGE VERSUS SMALL. "It has long been known that very large plants and animals are functionally unlike their smaller counterparts: they are more likely to be top consumers or producers, to tolerate a greater range of environmental conditions (at least in the case of animals), to maintain internal homeostasis more effectively, to be less vulnerable as adults to lethal predation, to compete more successfully for mates (again mainly in animals) and to be more prone to extinction during times of crisis." https://lnkd.in/dv_ZqB3 View in LinkedIn