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This Concept Map, created with IHMC CmapTools, has information related to: n3. Emergence, n3. Emergence ???? The diversity of organic molecules at the birth of our planet, and at the inception of life, was probably very low. Yet now, there are countless kinds of organic molecules. Somehow, in some mysterious way, the organic molecular diversity has taken energy from the sun, from hydrothermal energy, or lightning bolts, and cooked itself up from simple molecules to the complex molecules we find today., This is called supra-critical behavior which has its source in the same kind of phase transition of catalyzed reactions to connected webs that we found may have pushed molecules into living organisms in the first place. ???? In supra-critcal chemical systems, molecular species beget molecular species, until the wondrous cloud coalesces into everything from trilobites to flamingoes., When the probability of catalysis is low, or the diversity of the kinds of food molecules is low, or both, the generation of novel kinds of molecules soon dwindles to nothing. Behavior is sub-critical. ???? When the probability of catalysis is high, the diversity of kinds of food molecules is sufficiently high, or both, the system is suspra-critical and generates an explosion of new molecules that in turn catalyze others, etc. and the system has gone supra-critical., This is the source of the creative tension that brings about the ever-increasing diversity of the biosphere. This tension drives communities of cells to balance on a phase transition between the sub-critical and the supra-critical regimes which drives the creation of molecular novelty in the biosphere. ???? Chemicals can act as catalysts that act on other chemical substrates to create still further chemical products. Molecules can be both substrates and catalysts. Thus, the supra-criticality already present at the emergence of life as collectively autocatalytic sets., In supra-critcal chemical systems, molecular species beget molecular species, until the wondrous cloud coalesces into everything from trilobites to flamingoes. ???? Sufficiently diverse mixtures of chemicals reacting with one another can "catch fire”, achieve catalytic closure, and suddenly emerge as living, self-reproducing, evolving metabolisms., Sufficiently diverse mixtures of chemicals reacting with one another can "catch fire”, achieve catalytic closure, and suddenly emerge as living, self-reproducing, evolving metabolisms. ???? The biosphere as a whole is supra-critical, like a mass of fissioning atomic nuclei, but the individual cells that make up the biosphere must be sub-critical; otherwise the internal molecular explosion of diversity would be lethal., The biosphere as a whole is supra-critical, like a mass of fissioning atomic nuclei, but the individual cells that make up the biosphere must be sub-critical; otherwise the internal molecular explosion of diversity would be lethal. ???? This is the source of the creative tension that brings about the ever-increasing diversity of the biosphere. This tension drives communities of cells to balance on a phase transition between the sub-critical and the supra-critical regimes which drives the creation of molecular novelty in the biosphere., The striking possibility is that the biosphere causes is own explosion of organic molecules. The diversity feeds upon itself, driving itself forward. ???? Cells interacting with one another and with the environment create new kinds of molecules that beget other kinds of molecules., Chemicals can act as catalysts that act on other chemical substrates to create still further chemical products. Molecules can be both substrates and catalysts. Thus, the supra-criticality already present at the emergence of life as collectively autocatalytic sets. ???? Control of the supra-criticality can be accomplished by two mechanisms. Limiting the number of chemicals available, the “food" particles, and tuning the probability that any polymer can act as a catalyst for any of the possible ligation, or cleavage, reactions among the polymer substrates., Cells live in complex communities that always have traded and always will trade the molecules that each cell creates. ???? This is the source of the creative tension that brings about the ever-increasing diversity of the biosphere. This tension drives communities of cells to balance on a phase transition between the sub-critical and the supra-critical regimes which drives the creation of molecular novelty in the biosphere., Cells interacting with one another and with the environment create new kinds of molecules that beget other kinds of molecules. ???? This is called supra-critical behavior which has its source in the same kind of phase transition of catalyzed reactions to connected webs that we found may have pushed molecules into living organisms in the first place., Sufficiently diverse mixtures of chemicals reacting with one another can "catch fire”, achieve catalytic closure, and suddenly emerge as living, self-reproducing, evolving metabolisms. ???? Cells live in complex communities that always have traded and always will trade the molecules that each cell creates., The diversity of organic molecules at the birth of our planet, and at the inception of life, was probably very low. Yet now, there are countless kinds of organic molecules. Somehow, in some mysterious way, the organic molecular diversity has taken energy from the sun, from hydrothermal energy, or lightning bolts, and cooked itself up from simple molecules to the complex molecules we find today. ???? The striking possibility is that the biosphere causes is own explosion of organic molecules. The diversity feeds upon itself, driving itself forward., Control of the supra-criticality can be accomplished by two mechanisms. Limiting the number of chemicals available, the “food" particles, and tuning the probability that any polymer can act as a catalyst for any of the possible ligation, or cleavage, reactions among the polymer substrates. ???? When the probability of catalysis is low, or the diversity of the kinds of food molecules is low, or both, the generation of novel kinds of molecules soon dwindles to nothing. Behavior is sub-critical.