Life:
An Exercise in Freshman Chemistry Kinetics
Draft
2015.07.2 (July, 2015)
Walter
J. Deal
Professor
Emeritus, Chemistry
University
of California, Riverside
Note: Comments and korekshuns will
be enthusiastically welcomed!
Executive
summary/abstract:
What’s
the definition of life?
Answer: “Entia
[look it up] which replicate and evolve” or, equivalently, “any population of
entities which has the properties of multiplication, heredity, and variation.” [John
Maynard Smith, The Theory of Evolution,
1975, p. 109]
What’s
a reasonable candidate for the simplest form of life?
Answer: Dimers
Is
there a reasonable mechanism for replication of dimers?
Answer: Yes
Is there a reasonable mechanism for evolution
of dimers?Answer: Yes
What’s a reasonable possibility for dimers which can replicate and evolve?
Answer:
Dipeptides, but there are undoubtedly other possibilities
What’s
next?
Answer:
Simulations and/or experiments
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