Open-ended evolution capacities

The definitions of life are extremely controversial . So begins a publication on the problem of the definition of life which appeared as late as 2004. This publication is written by three Spanish scientists from the Centre for Astrobiology (INTA/CSIC) in Madrid, the University of Valencia and the University of the Basque Country in San Sebastian (Ruiz-Mirazo et al., 2004). Their general definition of life introduces two new terms into the discussion autonomy and open-ended evolution capacities . 

To end this overview, let me say a few words about the likely evolution of the calculations devoted to theoretically analyze the stability and reactivity of cyclodextrin complexes. Hybrid methods have recently opened the door for the most sophisticated ab initio and DFT methods to deal with molecular systems with hundreds or even thousands of atoms if the reactive center is well localized within a particular zone of the whole macromolecular system. As computers keep on growing in capacity and theoretical methods are progressively more well established, theoretical work on host guest complexes will be ready to make a jump from the qualitative predictions, already available now, to the quantitative results. This will provide a powerful tool for the experiments as theory will be helpful not just to explain reactions already known but to predict new reactions and effects of the supramolecular environment that have been until now out of reach of precise measurements (as intermolecular forces are quite tenuous, their theoretical evaluation is subject to noticeable relative errors). On the other hand, it is to be noted that electronic calculations alone are not able to disclose the rich molecular dynamics of such a large molecular systems. Up to now MC and MD procedures have been restricted to find the more stable conformations but they are able to tell us more details about the mechanism of the inclusion process and reactivity inside CD and other large guests. The applicability of these methods to such problems has also been... 

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