(Copyright © 2000 Piero Scaruffi | Legal restrictions - Termini d'uso )
The Hungarian chemist Tibor Ganti views life as the combination of of three systems: metabolism (a motor system capable of synthesizing material for its own
growth), self-reproduction (an information system capable of self-reproduction)
and separation (a system capable of limiting the penetration of external
material).
All three are autocatalytic systems.
These are roughly equivalent to cytoplasma, nucleus and membrane of a cell.
Ganti identifies the simplest form of life, the simplest combination of those three systems: the "chemoton". Tibor's living organism looks more like a computer than a program, because it includes the "hardware". Life without the hardware is not life, it is just the process that generates life. |