Life as we know it: does anyone else?

Life as we know it

This paper presents a heuristic proof (and simulations of a primordial soup) suggesting that life-or biological self-organization-is an inevitable and emergent property of any (ergodic) random dynamical system that possesses a Markov blanket. This conclusion is based on the following arguments: if the coupling among an ensemble of dynamical systems is mediated by short-range forces, then the st...

Life, but not as we know it.

Living systems are perhaps the most fascinating examples of chemistry in action. Molecules assemble into biomachinery that can carry out complex tasks, making life possible. But how did it all begin? This question can be tackled from a geological perspective by surveying the possible conditions under which key biomolecules might have emerged on early Earth. Alternatively, a systems-biology appr...

Life, but not as we know it

species of chameleon, Furcifer labordi, in Madagascar that spends most of its life as an egg. in Madagascar and the American Museum of Natural History in New York, have found a chameleon with a remarkable lifestyle and report the results in the latest issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (published online). Although there are almost limitless theoretical combinations of ...

It's life, but just as we know it.

Transforming Commerce as we Know It

Software agents have become very popular in the last six or so years. They have been used successfully to filter information, match people with similar interests and automate repetitive behavior. More recently, the capabilities of agents have been applied to electronic commerce, promising a revolution in the way we conduct transactions, whether business-to-business, business-to-consumer, or con...