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A note on the nature and origin of life

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Abstract

Some relational aspects of the property of self-reproduction of biological systems are studied. If in addition to the requirement of the property of self-reproduction we add also the requirement of adaptability of the organism to changing environment, this imposes certain conditions on the topology of the graphs which represent such systems. A further study of the relational properties of such systems seems to offer the possibility of deriving the principle of biological mapping from the requirement of self-reproduction and adaptability.

An examination of the problem of the original formation of such self-reproducing systems in connection with the established fact of impossibility of spontaneous generation leads to the conclusion that an organism must inhibit such processes which, in the absence of organisms, would lead to spontaneous generation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Committee on Mathematical Biology, The University of Chicago, Chicago, USA

    N. Rashevsky

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  1. N. Rashevsky
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Rashevsky, N. A note on the nature and origin of life. Bulletin of Mathematical Biophysics 21, 185–193 (1959). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02476359

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02476359

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