The Engineering of Life

Developing Insights into the Design of the Simplest Self-Replicator and Its 

Complexity Part 1—Developing a Functional Model for the Simplest Self-Replicator 

This is the hrst in a three-part series investigating the internals of the simplest possible self-replicator (SSR). The SSR is dehned as having an enclosure with input and output gateways and having the ability to create an exact replica of itself by ingesting and processing materials from its environment. This hrst part takes an analytical approach and identihes, one by one, the internal functions that must operate inside the SSR to be a fully autonomous replicator. 

One of the most intriguing questions that ordinary people, engineers, scientists, and philosophers have obsessed over for centuries is how life on Earth originated and is able to create descendants that look like their parents. Many researchers and scientists have invested tremendous resources in trying to identify a plausible natural means by which the simplest forms of life may have been created from inanimate matter. They have tried to identify, and hopefully reproduce, a set of events and circumstances that somehow puts together the basic elements of the simplest entity to replicate and thus become a living organism. 

The goal of this study is to use an engineering approach to develop insights into the internal design of a simplest possible self-replicator (SSR). The SSR is defined for the purpose of this study as an autonomous artifact that has the ability to obtain material input from its environment, grow, and create an exact replica of itself. The replica should inherit the ability from its mother SSR to create, in its turn, an exact copy of itself. 

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Pollack, G. H. In Cells, Gels and the Engines of Life A New, Unifying Approach to Cell Function.-, Ebner and Sons Seattle, 2001, pp. 11-37. 

FIGURE 3.7.7 Surface charge on a protein strand attracts a water dipolar molecule (top). The adsorbed dipole attracts additional dipoles to form a structured organization within the liquid (middle). Additional surface charges on the protein reinforce the external dipole network (bottom). (Redrawn from Pollack, G.H., Cells, Gels, and the Engines of Life A New, Unifying Approach to Cell Function, Ebner and Sons, Seattle, WA, 2001.)... 

Pollack, G.H., 2001. Cells, gels and the engines of life. Ebner Sons. 

Preamble. Engineering is an important and learned profession. The members of the profession recognize that their work has a direct and vital impact on the quality of life for all people. Accordingly, the services provided by engineers require honesty, safety and welfare. In the practice of their profession, engineers must perform under a standard of professional behavior which requires adherence to the highest principles of ethical conduct on behalf of the public, clients, employers and the profession. 

Two main hazards associated with chemicals are toxicity and flammability. Toxicity measurements in model species and their interpretation are largely the province of life scientists. Chemical engineers can provide assistance in helping life scientists extrapolate their resrrlts in the assessment of chemical hazards. Chemical engineers have the theoretical tools to make important contributions to modehng the transport and transformation of chemical species in the body—from the entry of species into the body to their action at the rrltimate site where they exert their toxic effect. Chemical engineers are also more likely than life scientists to appreciate... 

On the whole, the technology utilized to produce the variety of new nanostructured colloidal materials, as outlined in this chapter, is unparalleled in its versatility and simplicity and is therefore foreseen to become widely used in the engineering of colloidal entities for various applications in the physical and life sciences. 

Azapagic, A. Clift, R. (1999) The Application of Life Cycle Assessment to Process Optimisation. Computers and Chemical Engineering, 23(10), 1509-1526. 

A specialty of geology concerned with earth processes, earth resources, and engineering properties of earth materials and relevant to (1) the protection of human health and natural ecosystems from adverse biochemical and/or geochemical reactions to naturally occurring chemicals or to chemical compounds released into the environment by human activities and (2) the protection of life, safety, and well-being of humans from natural processes, such as floods, hurricanes, earthquakes and landslides, through land-use planning. 

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