The Jim Rutt Show

EP 227 Stuart Kauffman on the Emergence of Life

17 snips
Feb 29, 2024
Stuart Kauffman discusses the emergence of life in the universe, auto-catalytic sets, DNA structure, molecular catalysis, origins of metabolism, Darwin's warm pond hypothesis, TAP equation, evolution's creativity, economics unpredictability, autocatalytic closure, information conservation, and an experiment mixing fungi with bacteria.
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INSIGHT

Autocatalytic Sets and Life's Origin

  • The origin of life likely involved a phase transition to an autocatalytic set, where molecules mutually catalyze each other's formation.
  • This emergence is an expected outcome given rising molecular diversity and reaction complexity in the universe.
INSIGHT

Small Molecule Autocatalytic Sets

  • Small molecule autocatalytic sets have been computationally found in all 6700 prokaryotes, suggesting a fundamental form of early life.
  • These sets function without DNA, RNA, or proteins, acting as proto-metabolisms with catalytic closure and energy pathways.
INSIGHT

Theory of the Adjacent Possible

  • The theory of the adjacent possible explains that as diversity of things grows, new combinations produce explosive, hyperbolic growth in complexity.
  • This combinatorial explosion underpins the expected phase transition from simple molecules to life and ongoing evolution.
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