Archive for August, 2008
Lie Algebra Notes
August 26th, 2008
It was at about this line in his notes that Harry Schwartz realized that he hadn’t written a single English word in like a page and a half.
It was only shortly after this that he realized that if he transcribed his notes onto a robe he could be a wizard for Halloween. Math is awesome!
Autocatalytic Sets
August 14th, 2008
In chemistry, a catalyst is a molecule which when added to a reaction causes the rate of the reaction to increase dramatically. Catalysts are fairly specific, so a given catalyst only catalyzes a certain class of reactions. An autocatalytic reaction is a reaction whose products act as a catalyst for the reaction. So in effect the reaction speeds itself up.
This is obviously awesome in and of itself, but there’s more. Sometimes a series of reactions produces an autocatalytic set. This is comprised of a series of reactions in which each reaction produces a catalyst for the next until eventually the final reaction produces a catalyst for the first. Systems like this can produce some remarkably complex (and unlikely) molecules.
“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.” – Wikipedia
Back in the ’80s, a researcher named Stuart Kauffman pioneered the idea that autocatalytic sets may have provided the mechanism by which simple life originally developed. A spontaneous, self-modifying mechanism creating order! If Harry Schwartz thought he could survive the Alberta winter, he would apply to Kauffman’s lab (at the University of Calgary) so fast.