[HN Gopher] Mimicking natural selection in chemical systems
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       Mimicking natural selection in chemical systems
        
       Author : DigitalNoumena
       Score  : 37 points
       Date   : 2023-08-30 09:30 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nature.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nature.com)
        
       | hsnewman wrote:
       | Living matter is a chemical system too.
        
       | simonh wrote:
       | I don't have access to the article, but this sounds a bit like
       | autocatalytic sets. Can anyone with access comment on that?
       | 
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autocatalytic_set
        
       | billiam wrote:
       | It's a strange formulation. I think the point is that significant
       | inputs of energy or chemical potential are needed to make
       | chemical systems behave like biological systems in terms of the
       | permanent, replicable changes that Darwin called natural
       | selection. That's how you get disequilibrium in such usually
       | reversible mechanisms, which the authors imply is necessary for
       | the origin of life. I may be missing a larger point, but these
       | energy inputs are assumed in most origin of life theories, from
       | Urey's lightning in a swamp to more recent clay replication
       | ideas.
        
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       (page generated 2023-08-31 23:01 UTC)