Molecular development, living systems

The unique power of synthesis is the ability to create new molecules and materials with valuable properties. This capacity can be used to interact with the natural world, as in the treatment of disease or the production of food, but it can also produce compounds and materials beyond the capacity of living systems. Our present world uses vast amounts of synthetic polymers, mainly derived from petroleum by synthesis. The development of nanotechnology, which envisions the application of properties at the molecular level to catalysis, energy transfer, and information management has focused attention on multimolecular arrays and systems capable of self-assembly. We can expect that in the future synthesis will bring into existence new substances with unique properties that will have impacts as profound as those resulting from syntheses of therapeutics and polymeric materials. 

Are Darwinian processes and their inherent struggle to the death essential for living systems Can altruistic processes that do not require death and extinctions and their associated molecular structures support the development of complex life ... 

The approach of Dainton and Ivin [1] is general, simple, and formally quite correct. Practically it really yields only a limited amount and quality of information on the polymerizing systems. The mechanistic approach of Eisenberg and Tobolsky [3] is more specialized it only applies to living systems. However, it yields information not only on monomer-polymer equilibria but also on the equilibrium distribution of molecular mass. The work of Tobolsky was extended by Wheeler et al. who further refined equilibria calculations in homopolymerizations [4, 5] a general solution of equilibrium copolymerizations in living media was developed by Szwarc [6]. These latter developments are not based on formal thermodynamics. 

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