A quick thread on our @Nature paper on Assembly Theory. https://nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06600-9… 1/10 Assembly theory provides a new framework to understand selection and evolution that integrates physics and biology. It redefines objects not as particles but by their formation histories.
assembly theory, a way of differentiating life from nonlife, not by its chemistry but by its complexity.
The way to proceed is clear: start with the minimal specification for a living, reproducing thing—a list of all the things it has to be able to do—and work backward, making an inventory of the available raw materials (often called the feedstock molecules of prebiotic chemistry), and asking what sequence of possible events could gradually bring toge
... See moreSelf-assembly, then, is nature’s third trick of the materials trade.
Put genes together into circuits and they can do much more than they could on their own. Put circuits together and you create a living thing.