From Molecules to Life: Quantifying the Complexity of Chemical and Biological Systems in the Universe.

ABSTRACT: Life is a complex phenomenon and much research has been devoted to both understanding its origins from prebiotic chemistry and discovering life beyond Earth. Yet, it has remained elusive how to quantify this complexity and how to compare chemical and biological units on one common scale. Here, a mathematical description of molecular complexity was applied allowing to quantitatively assess complexity of chemical structures. This in combination with the orthogonal measure of information complexity resulted in a two-dimensional complexity space ranging over the entire spectrum from molecules to organisms. Entities with a certain level of information complexity directly require a functionally complex mechanism for their production or replication and are hence indicative for life-like systems.

SUBMITTER: Bottcher T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5794832 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature