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Chemoton
The term chemoton (short for 'chemical automaton') refers to an abstract model for the fundamental unit of life introduced by Hungarian people, Hungarian theoretical biologist Tibor Gánti. Popular articles express surprise that Gánti's work is so little known. Gánti conceived the basic idea in 1952 and formulated the concept in 1971 in his book ''The Principles of Life'' (originally written in Hungarian, and translated to English only in 2003). He suggested that the chemoton was the original ancestor of all organisms. The basic assumption of the model is that life should fundamentally and essentially have three properties: metabolism, self-replication, and a Cell membrane, bilipid membrane. The metabolic and replication functions together form an autocatalytic subsystem necessary for the basic functions of life, and a membrane encloses this subsystem to separate it from the surrounding environment. Therefore, any system having such properties may be regarded as alive, and it wil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tibor Gánti
Tibor Gánti (10 September 1933 – 15 April 2009) was a Hungarian theoretical biologist and biochemist, who is best known for his theory of the chemoton, a model for defining the minimal nature of life. He taught industrial biochemistry at Faculty of Science of the Eötvös University, and theoretical biology at University of Gödöllő, József Attila University, and Eötvös University. Early life and education Tibor Gánti worked as laboratory assistant at the Bacteriological Laboratory, Factory of Canned Food at Dunakeszi from 1951-1952. He then moved to Photochemical Research Institute of Vác in 1953-1954. From 1958 to 1965 he was the head of Yeast Laboratory, Yeast Factory, Budapest. In the meantime he completed a diploma in chemical engineering from the Technical University of Budapest in 1958, and a Dr. techn. (PhD) in 1962. Between 1965 and 1974 he was the head of biochemical department at the Reanal Factory of Laboratory Chemicals in Budapest. He was awarded a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Autocatalytic Set
An autocatalytic set is a collection of entities, each of which can be created catalytically by other entities within the set, such that as a whole, the set is able to catalyze its own production. In this way the set ''as a whole'' is said to be autocatalytic. Autocatalytic sets were originally and most concretely defined in terms of molecular entities, but have more recently been metaphorically extended to the study of systems in sociology, ecology, and economics. Autocatalytic sets also have the ability to replicate themselves if they are split apart into two physically separated spaces. Computer models illustrate that split autocatalytic sets will reproduce all of the reactions of the original set in each half, much like cellular mitosis. In effect, using the principles of autocatalysis, a small metabolism can replicate itself with very little high level organization. This property is why autocatalysis is a contender as the foundational mechanism for complex evolution. Prio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Autopoiesis
The term autopoiesis () refers to a system capable of producing and maintaining itself by creating its own parts. The term was introduced in the 1972 publication '' Autopoiesis and Cognition: The Realization of the Living'' by Chilean biologists Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela to define the self-maintaining chemistry of living cells. Since then the concept has been also applied to the fields of cognition, systems theory, architecture and sociology. Overview In their 1972 book ''Autopoiesis and Cognition'', Chilean biologists Maturana and Varela described how they invented the word autopoiesis. They explained that, They described the "space defined by an autopoietic system" as "self-contained", a space that "cannot be described by using dimensions that define another space. When we refer to our interactions with a concrete autopoietic system, however, we project this system on the space of our manipulations and make a description of this projection." Meaning Autop ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Rosen (theoretical Biologist)
Robert Rosen (June 27, 1934 – December 28, 1998) was an American theoretical biologist and Professor of Biophysics at Dalhousie University. Career Rosen was born on June 27, 1934 in Brownsville (a section of Brooklyn), in New York City. He studied biology, mathematics, physics, philosophy, and history; particularly, the history of science. In 1959 he obtained a PhD in relational biology, a specialization within the broader field of Mathematical Biology, under the guidance of Professor Nicolas Rashevsky at the University of Chicago. He remained at the University of Chicago until 1964,"Autobiographical Reminiscences of Robert Rosen" later moving to the University of Buffalo — now part of the |
Robert Rosen (theoretical Biologist)
Robert Rosen (June 27, 1934 – December 28, 1998) was an American theoretical biologist and Professor of Biophysics at Dalhousie University. Career Rosen was born on June 27, 1934 in Brownsville (a section of Brooklyn), in New York City. He studied biology, mathematics, physics, philosophy, and history; particularly, the history of science. In 1959 he obtained a PhD in relational biology, a specialization within the broader field of Mathematical Biology, under the guidance of Professor Nicolas Rashevsky at the University of Chicago. He remained at the University of Chicago until 1964,"Autobiographical Reminiscences of Robert Rosen" later moving to the University of Buffalo — now part of the |
Hypercycle (chemistry)
In chemistry, a hypercycle is an abstract model of organization of self-replicating molecules connected in a cyclic, autocatalytic manner. It was introduced in an ordinary differential equation (ODE) form by the Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner Manfred Eigen in 1971 and subsequently further extended in collaboration with Peter Schuster. It was proposed as a solution to the error threshold problem encountered during modelling of replicative molecules that hypothetically existed on the primordial Earth (see: abiogenesis). As such, it explained how life on Earth could have begun using only relatively short genetic sequences, which in theory were too short to store all essential information. The hypercycle is a special case of the replicator equation. The most important properties of hypercycles are autocatalytic growth competition between cycles, once-for-ever selective behaviour, utilization of small selective advantage, rapid evolvability, increased information capacity, and selec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reaction Scheme Of Gánti's Chemoton
Reaction may refer to a process or to a response (other), response to an action, event, or exposure: Physics and chemistry *Chemical reaction *Nuclear reaction *Reaction (physics), as defined by Newton's third law *Chain reaction (other). Biology and medicine *Adverse drug reaction *Allergy, Allergic reaction *Reflex, neural reaction *Hypersensitivity, immune reaction *Intolerance (other) *Light reaction (other). Psychology *Emotional, reaction *Reactivity (behaviour) *Proactivity, opposite of reactive behaviour *Reactive attachment disorder. Politics and culture *Reactionary, a political tendency *Reaction video *Commentary (other). Proper names and titles *Reaction (album), ''Reaction'' (album), a 1986 album by American R&B singer Rebbie Jackson **Reaction (song), "Reaction" (song), the title song from the Rebbie Jackson album *"Reaction", a single by Dead Letter Circus *ReAction GUI, a GUI toolkit used on AmigaOS *Reaction.life ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mycoplasma
''Mycoplasma'' is a genus of bacteria that, like the other members of the class ''Mollicutes'', lack a cell wall around their cell membranes. Peptidoglycan (murein) is absent. This characteristic makes them naturally resistant to antibiotics that target cell wall synthesis (like the beta-lactam antibiotics). They can be parasitic or saprotrophic. Several species are pathogenic in humans, including '' M. pneumoniae'', which is an important cause of "walking" pneumonia and other respiratory disorders, and '' M. genitalium'', which is believed to be involved in pelvic inflammatory diseases. ''Mycoplasma'' species (like the other species of the class ''Mollicutes'') are among the smallest organisms yet discovered, can survive without oxygen, and come in various shapes. For example, ''M. genitalium'' is flask-shaped (about 300 x 600 nm), while ''M. pneumoniae'' is more elongated (about 100 x 1000 nm), many ''Mycoplasma'' species are coccoid. Hundreds of ''Mycoplasma'' species i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Francisco Varela
Francisco Javier Varela García (September 7, 1946 – May 28, 2001) was a Chilean biologist, philosopher, cybernetician, and neuroscientist who, together with his mentor Humberto Maturana, is best known for introducing the concept of autopoiesis to biology, and for co-founding the Mind and Life Institute to promote dialog between science and Buddhism. Life and career Varela was born in 1946 in Santiago in Chile, the son of Corina María Elena García Tapia and Raúl Andrés Varela Rodríguez. After completing secondary school at the Liceo Alemán del Verbo Divino in Santiago (1951–1963), like his mentor Humberto Maturana, Varela temporarily studied medicine at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and graduated with a degree in biology from the University of Chile. He later obtained a Ph.D. in biology at Harvard University. His thesis, defended in 1970 and supervised by Torsten Wiesel, was titled ''Insect Retinas: Information processing in the compound eye''. After the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Humberto Maturana
Humberto Maturana Romesín (September 14, 1928 – May 6, 2021) was a Chilean biologist and philosopher. Many consider him a member of a group of second-order cybernetics theoreticians such as Heinz von Foerster, Gordon Pask, Herbert Brün and Ernst von Glasersfeld. Maturana, along with Francisco Varela and Ricardo B. Uribe, was particularly known for creating the term "autopoiesis" about the self-generating, self-maintaining structure in living systems, and concepts such as structural determinism and structural coupling. His work was influential in many fields, mainly the field of systems thinking and cybernetics. Overall, his work is concerned with the biology of cognition.Magnus Ramage, Karen Shipp (2012) ''Systems Thinkers'' Maturana (2002) insisted that autopoiesis exists only in the molecular domain, and he did not agree with the extension into sociology and other fields: The molecular domain is the only domain of entities that through their interactions give rise to a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quasispecies Model
The quasispecies model is a description of the process of the Darwinian evolution of certain self-replicating entities within the framework of physical chemistry. A quasispecies is a large group or "cloud" of related genotypes that exist in an environment of high mutation rate (at stationary state), where a large fraction of offspring are expected to contain one or more mutations relative to the parent. This is in contrast to a species, which from an evolutionary perspective is a more-or-less stable single genotype, most of the offspring of which will be genetically accurate copies. It is useful mainly in providing a qualitative understanding of the evolutionary processes of self-replicating macromolecules such as RNA or DNA or simple asexual organisms such as bacteria or viruses (see also viral quasispecies), and is helpful in explaining something of the early stages of the origin of life. Quantitative predictions based on this model are difficult because the parameters that ser ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peter Schuster
Peter K. Schuster (born 7 March 1941) is a theoretical chemist known for his work with the German Nobel Laureate Manfred Eigen in developing the quasispecies model. His work has made great strides in the understanding of viruses and their replication, as well as theoretical mechanisms in the origin of life. Biography Schuster was born in Vienna, Austria and graduated with highest honors from "gymnasium". He studied chemistry and physics at the University of Vienna and earned his PhD in 1967. He was a Postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry. Together with Eigen, Schuster developed the quasispecies model. He is full professor of theoretical chemistry at the University of Vienna, the founding director of the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology in Jena, Germany, as well as the current head of its Department of Molecular Evolutionary Biology. He is an external faculty member at the Santa Fe Institute. Currently, Prof. Schuster is the President of the Austrian A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
