Self-replicating patterns and information dynamics
by
Prof.Kristian Lindgren(Chalmers University of Technology)
→
Europe/Stockholm
Klein Auditorium
Klein Auditorium
Description
Non-linear dynamics in chemical systems can exhibit a variety of
complex phenomena, ranging from chaotic oscillations to spatio-
temporal patterns like spiral waves. In the 1990’s a special
phenomenon was observed, both experimentally and in computer
simulations, showing self-replication of spatial patterns or “spots”.
In this talk I will discuss two aspects of this area. The first part
deals with the question on how to characterise spatial patterns in
complex chemical dynamics. A framework based on information theory is
presented. Due to the connection between information theory and
statistical mechanics, we can connect information-theoretic
characteristics of the patterns to thermodynamic constraints for the
chemical dynamics, primarily the need of free energy to balance the
information loss from entropy production. The second part deals with
the question on which conditions can we observe self-replicating
patterns. In particular we have been investigating a model that
supports the phenomenon in a chemical reactor architecture that has
been developed on a microfluids platform. This work is part of the
European project PACE (Programmable Artifical Cell Evolution), in
which one general goal is to investigate the possibility to create
life-like properties in artificial chemical systems, with self-
replication as one such example.
