Investigating the Emergence of Chemical Complexity for Life Detection and Patent Evolution; and Developing Earth Science Curricula for Prison Education

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Description
The origin of life remains unknowable to current science. Scientists cannot see into the origin of life on Earth, and until humanity discovers life elsewhere in the universe and begin to compare this alien life to Earth, it is likely…

The origin of life remains unknowable to current science. Scientists cannot see into the origin of life on Earth, and until humanity discovers life elsewhere in the universe and begin to compare this alien life to Earth, it is likely to be undiscoverable. However, alien life may be so different from life as it is currently known that it may not be recognizable when it is found. Therefore, astrobiology needs a universal theory for life to avoid detection methods being biased towards Earth-based life. This also extends to the instrumentation sent into space, which should be built to detect universal properties of life. Assembly theory, a novel measure of complexity and arguably the only testable agnostic biosignature in current science, is used here to provide precision requirements for mass spectrometry instrumentation on future spaceflight missions with the goal of finding life elsewhere. Universal properties are not only applicable to the origins of life, but also to technologically advanced societies. Predictable patterns are found in today’s industrially based society, such as energy usage as a function of population density. These patterns may serve as the basis for technosignatures that are evidence of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations. Patters found in patent chemistry are explored, as well as predictions of chemical complexity based on assembly theory, to determine how complex chemistry is built by human society and which statistical patterns may be found in extraterrestrial civilizations. Moving beyond astrobiology, science cannot be done in a vacuum but must be communicated and taught to others. Topics such as a universal definition of life, biosignatures, and increasing complexity mean nothing without interest and engagement from others, particularly students. To this end, transformative pedagogical tools are used, particularly sociotransformative constructivism (sTc), to build and teach an Earth Science and Astrobiology curriculum to a classroom of high school incarcerated students. The impact of this class on their science learning and how they personally identify as scientists is studied.
Date Created
2023
Agent

A.L.I.E.N: Assembled Life Inside an Expanding Nature

Description

Assembly theory as a way of defining the biotic/abiotic boundary has been established for molecules, but not yet for crystal structures. This is an assembly algorithm that calculates the complexity of biotic and abiotic minerals in order to constrain the…

Assembly theory as a way of defining the biotic/abiotic boundary has been established for molecules, but not yet for crystal structures. This is an assembly algorithm that calculates the complexity of biotic and abiotic minerals in order to constrain the quantitative fundamentals of "life". The calculation utilizes the Hermann-Mauguin space group symmetry and Wyckoff sites of mineral unit cells to calculate the path-building complexity of a crystal structure. 5,644 minerals from the American Mineralogist COD database were run through the algorithm. The five structures with the highest information complexity were a mix of biotic and abiotic minerals, indicating that further calculations on larger datasets would be pertinent. Furthermore, an expansion of the definition of mineral to include biotically synthesized solids would further research efforts aimed at using minerals as possible biomarkers.

Date Created
2023-05
Agent

Close Encounters of the First Kind: On Cultural Representations of Extraterrestrials, First Contact, & the Mythology of the Alien Other

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Description
Western culture has oversimplified and mythologized the possibility of first contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. Whether through anthropocentrism, lack of contextual literature and/or available knowledge, or simple misunderstanding, humanity has failed to fully consider the impacts of seeking out alien life.…

Western culture has oversimplified and mythologized the possibility of first contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. Whether through anthropocentrism, lack of contextual literature and/or available knowledge, or simple misunderstanding, humanity has failed to fully consider the impacts of seeking out alien life. Instead, humanity’s cultural and political representations of extraterrestrials tell us a great deal about the people behind the stories—all of us stuck together on our pale blue dot. This thesis explores the mythological character that is ever-present in the extraterrestrial conversation, and how past and current cultural creators in the global West have perpetuated and changed that paradigm. This thesis is also an exploration of the ways we envision our ability to contact and interact with an unknown extraterrestrial other—in many ways mythological, and in some ways as powerful symbols for struggles against oppression. I argue for a more nuanced, creative, and scientifically driven representation and consideration of first contact with extraterrestrial intelligence.
Date Created
2020-12
Agent

Prebiotic RNA Network Formation: A Taxonomy of Molecular Cooperation

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Description

Cooperation is essential for evolution of biological complexity. Recent work has shown game theoretic arguments, commonly used to model biological cooperation, can also illuminate the dynamics of chemical systems. Here we investigate the types of cooperation possible in a real…

Cooperation is essential for evolution of biological complexity. Recent work has shown game theoretic arguments, commonly used to model biological cooperation, can also illuminate the dynamics of chemical systems. Here we investigate the types of cooperation possible in a real RNA system based on the Azoarcus ribozyme, by constructing a taxonomy of possible cooperative groups. We construct a computational model of this system to investigate the features of the real system promoting cooperation. We find triplet interactions among genotypes are intrinsically biased towards cooperation due to the particular distribution of catalytic rate constants measured empirically in the real system. For other distributions cooperation is less favored. We discuss implications for understanding cooperation as a driver of complexification in the origin of life.

Date Created
2017-10-16
Agent

Physical Universality, State-Dependent Dynamical Laws and Open-Ended Novelty

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Description
A major conceptual step forward in understanding the logical architecture of living systems was advanced by von Neumann with his universal constructor, a physical device capable of self-reproduction. A necessary condition for a universal constructor to exist is that the…

A major conceptual step forward in understanding the logical architecture of living systems was advanced by von Neumann with his universal constructor, a physical device capable of self-reproduction. A necessary condition for a universal constructor to exist is that the laws of physics permit physical universality, such that any transformation (consistent with the laws of physics and availability of resources) can be caused to occur. While physical universality has been demonstrated in simple cellular automata models, so far these have not displayed a requisite feature of life—namely open-ended evolution—the explanation of which was also a prime motivator in von Neumann’s formulation of a universal constructor. Current examples of physical universality rely on reversible dynamical laws, whereas it is well-known that living processes are dissipative. Here we show that physical universality and open-ended dynamics should both be possible in irreversible dynamical systems if one entertains the possibility of state-dependent laws. We demonstrate with simple toy models how the accessibility of state space can yield open-ended trajectories, defined as trajectories that do not repeat within the expected Poincaré recurrence time and are not reproducible by an isolated system. We discuss implications for physical universality, or an approximation to it, as a foundational framework for developing a physics for life.
Date Created
2017-09-01
Agent

Formal Definitions of Unbounded Evolution and Innovation Reveal Universal Mechanisms for Open-Ended Evolution in Dynamical Systems

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Description
Open-ended evolution (OEE) is relevant to a variety of biological, artificial and technological systems, but has been challenging to reproduce in silico. Most theoretical efforts focus on key aspects of open-ended evolution as it appears in biology. We recast the…

Open-ended evolution (OEE) is relevant to a variety of biological, artificial and technological systems, but has been challenging to reproduce in silico. Most theoretical efforts focus on key aspects of open-ended evolution as it appears in biology. We recast the problem as a more general one in dynamical systems theory, providing simple criteria for open-ended evolution based on two hallmark features: unbounded evolution and innovation. We define unbounded evolution as patterns that are non-repeating within the expected Poincare recurrence time of an isolated system, and innovation as trajectories not observed in isolated systems. As a case study, we implement novel variants of cellular automata (CA) where the update rules are allowed to vary with time in three alternative ways. Each is capable of generating conditions for open-ended evolution, but vary in their ability to do so. We find that state-dependent dynamics, regarded as a hallmark of life, statistically out-performs other candidate mechanisms, and is the only mechanism to produce open-ended evolution in a scalable manner, essential to the notion of ongoing evolution. This analysis suggests a new framework for unifying mechanisms for generating OEE with features distinctive to life and its artifacts, with broad applicability to biological and artificial systems.
Date Created
2017-04-20
Agent

Top-Down Causation and the Rise of Information in the Emergence of Life

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Description

Biological systems represent a unique class of physical systems in how they process and manage information. This suggests that changes in the flow and distribution of information played a prominent role in the origin of life. Here I review and…

Biological systems represent a unique class of physical systems in how they process and manage information. This suggests that changes in the flow and distribution of information played a prominent role in the origin of life. Here I review and expand on an emerging conceptual framework suggesting that the origin of life may be identified as a transition in causal structure and information flow, and detail some of the implications for understanding the early stages chemical evolution.

Date Created
2014-07-21
Agent

Quantum non-barking dogs

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Description
Quantum weak measurements with states both pre- and post-selected offer a window into a hitherto neglected sector of quantum mechanics. A class of such systems involves time dependent evolution with transitions possible. In this paper we explore two very simple…

Quantum weak measurements with states both pre- and post-selected offer a window into a hitherto neglected sector of quantum mechanics. A class of such systems involves time dependent evolution with transitions possible. In this paper we explore two very simple systems in this class. The first is a toy model representing the decay of an excited atom. The second is the tunneling of a particle through a barrier. The post-selection criteria are chosen as follows: at the final time, the atom remains in its initial excited state for the first example and the particle remains behind the barrier for the second. We then ask what weak values are predicted in the physical environment of the atom (to which no net energy has been transferred) and in the region beyond the barrier (to which the particle has not tunneled). Thus, just as the dog that didn't bark in Arthur Conan Doyle's story Silver Blaze gave Sherlock Holmes meaningful information about the dog's non-canine environment, here we probe whether the particle that has not decayed or has not tunneled can provide measurable information about physical changes in the environment. Previous work suggests that very large weak values might arise in these regions for long durations between pre- and post-selection times. Our calculations reveal some distinct differences between the two model systems.
Date Created
2014-06-13
Agent
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