Spontaneous emergence of a metabolism

Conference · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1990

OSTI ID:5574692

Bagley, R J; Farmer, J D ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA) Santa Fe Inst., NM (USA)

Networks of catalyzed reactions with nonlinear feedback have been proposed to play an important role in the origin of life. We investigate this possibility in a polymer chemistry with catalyzed cleavage and condensation reactions. We study the properties of a well-stirred reactor driven away from equilibrium by the flow of mass. Under appropriate non-equilibrium conditions. The nonlinear feedback of the reaction network focuses the material of the system into a few specific polymer species. The network of catalytic reactions digests'' the material of its environment, incorporating it into its own form. We call the result an autocatalytic metabolism. Under some variations it persists almost unchanged, while in other cases it dies. We argue that the dynamical stability of autocatalytic metabolisms gives them regenerative properties that allow them to repair themselves and to propagate through time. 43 refs., 16 figs., 3 tabs.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 5574692
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-91-1707; CONF-9002163--2; ON: DE91013684
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
400201 -- Chemical & Physicochemical Properties
550500 -- Metabolism
550700* -- Microbiology
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
BIOMIMETIC PROCESSES
CATALYSIS
CHEMICAL REACTION KINETICS
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CHEMICAL REACTORS
COMPUTER CALCULATIONS
COMPUTER GRAPHICS
DATA
EQUILIBRIUM
FUNCTIONAL MODELS
INFORMATION
KINETICS
MASS TRANSFER
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
METABOLISM
MONOMERS
NUMERICAL DATA
PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS
POLYMERIZATION
POLYMERS
PRECURSOR
REACTION KINETICS
STABILITY
THEORETICAL DATA
THERMODYNAMICS