Related papers: Selection first path to the origin of life
Life occurs in concentrated `Ringer Solutions' derived from seawater that Lesser Blum studied for most of his life. As we worked together, Lesser and I realized that the questions asked of those solutions were quite different in biology…
An autocatalytic pattern matching polymer system is studied as an abstract model for chemical ecosystem evolution. Highly ordered populations with particular sequence patterns appear spontaneously out of a vast number of possible states.…
We study the probabilities of evolution based on random mutations and natural selection. We conclude that evolution to multicellular eukaryots, or even prokaryots, is unlikely to be the result of only random mutations. Complex organisms…
The theory of evolution by natural selection cannot be used to evaluate the truth value of the following proposition: Through evolution, there exists at least one species that can adapt to any one given environment. To address this issue,…
Molecular systems often remain trapped for long times around some local minimum of the potential energy function, before switching to another one -- a behavior known as metastability. Simulating transition paths linking one metastable state…
DNA replication is a process which is common to all domains of life yet different replication mechanisms are seen among different organisms. The mechanism of replication on such a structure is not yet understood. With this bigger picture in…
A novel theory for cell differentiation is proposed, based on simulations with interacting artificial cells which have metabolic networks within, and divide into two when the final product is accumulated. Results of simulations with coupled…
Vital to primary visual processing, retinal circuitry shows many similar structures across a very broad array of species, both vertebrate and non-vertebrate, especially functional components such as lateral inhibition. This surprisingly…
Molecular transitions -- such as protein folding, allostery, and membrane transport -- are central to biology yet remain notoriously difficult to simulate. Their intrinsic rarity pushes them beyond reach of standard molecular dynamics,…
Origins of life research investigates how life could emerge from prebiotic chemistry only. One possible explanation provides the RNA world hypothesis. It states that life could emerge from RNA strands only, storing and transferring…
Microbial communities display extreme diversity. A variety of strains or species coexist even when limited by a single resource. It has been argued that metabolite secretion creates new niches and facilitates such diversity. Nonetheless, it…
A normative approach called Similarity Matching was recently introduced for deriving and understanding the algorithmic basis of neural computation focused on unsupervised problems. It involves deriving algorithms from computational…
Instructive influence of environment on heredity has been a debated topic for centuries. Darwin's identification of natural selection coupled to chance variation as the driving force for evolution, against a formal interpretation proposed…
Evolution is a dynamic process. The two classical forces of evolution are mutation and selection. Assuming small mutation rates, evolution can be predicted based solely on the fitness differences between phenotypes. Predicting an…
Cooperation is observed widely in nature and is thought an essential component of many evolutionary processes, yet the mechanisms by which it arises and persists are still unclear. Among several theories, network reciprocity -- a model of…
Living organisms survive and multiply even though they have uncertain and incomplete information about their environment and imperfect models to predict the consequences of their actions. Bayesian models have been proposed to face this…
A great variety of molecular components is encapsulated in cells. Each of these components is replicated for cell reproduction. To address an essential role of the huge diversity of cellular components, we study a model of protocells that…
A simple, heuristic formula with parallels to the Drake Equation is introduced to help focus discussion on open questions for the origins of life in a planetary context. This approach indicates a number of areas where quantitative progress…
We propose a model for evolution aiming to reproduce statistical features of fossil data, in particular the distributions of extinction events, the distribution of species per genus and the distribution of lifetimes, all of which are known…
It is not currently possible to create a living organism ab initio due to the overwhelming complexity of biological systems. In fact, the origin of life mechanism, this being how biological organisms form from non-living matter, is unknown.…