Omne Vivum Ex Vivo ... Omne? How to Feed an Inanimate Evolvable Chemical System so as to Let it Self-evolve into Increased Complexity and Life-like Behaviour

• Published in: Israel journal of chemistry Vol. 55; no. 8; pp. 851 - 864
• Main Author: Strazewski, Peter
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim WILEY-VCH Verlag 01.08.2015; WILEY‐VCH Verlag; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: biosynthesis; Cells (biology); Chemists; Compartments; Emergence; Genetics; Macromolecules; Monomers; off-equilibrium chemistry; self-evolvable chemistry; synthetic biology; systems chemistry; Thermodynamic equilibrium

“What I cannot create, I do not understand.” Richard Feynman’s bon mot seems almost tailored for experimental systems chemists to realise an important step in the chemical sciences: the creation of living synthetic cells from the entirely inanimate. The underlying idea needs to be simple so the syst...