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The essence of life revisited: how theories can shed light on it.

Authors :
Cornish-Bowden, Athel
Cárdenas, María Luz
Source :
Theory in Biosciences; Jun2022, Vol. 141 Issue 2, p105-123, 19p
Publication Year :
2022

Abstract

Disagreement over whether life is inevitable when the conditions can support life remains unresolved, but calculations show that self-organization can arise naturally from purely random effects. Closure to efficient causation, or the need for all specific catalysts used by an organism to be produced internally, implies that a true model of an organism cannot exist, though this does not exclude the possibility that some characteristics can be simulated. Such simulations indicate that there is a limit to how small a self-organizing system can be: much smaller than a bacterial cell, but around the size of a typical virus particle. All current theories of life incorporate, at least implicitly, the idea of catalysis, but they largely ignore the need for metabolic regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
14317613
Volume :
141
Issue :
2
Database :
Complementary Index
Journal :
Theory in Biosciences
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
157412239
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12064-021-00342-w