Deriving the bodily grounding of living beings with molecular autopoiesis

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eran Agmon
Keyword(s):  
Original Formulation ◽  
Autopoietic Systems ◽  
Definition Of

“Are living beings extended autopoietic systems? An embodied reply,” makes the case for grounding the autopoietic definition of living beings to the discrete bodies of organisms rather than to autopoietic systems that extend beyond the organisms into their environments. They attempt this grounding by amending a clause to the original formulation of autopoiesis that identifies living beings with their bodies, and then they explicitly define “bodies”. This commentary makes the case that bodily grounding can be derived from molecular autopoiesis by taking the molecular domain seriously, and no new amendment is required.

scholarly journals Are living beings extended autopoietic systems? An embodied reply

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mario Villalobos ◽  
Pablo Razeto-Barry
Keyword(s):  
Research Program ◽  
Original Formulation ◽  
Autopoietic Systems ◽  
Form Part ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Autopoietic Theory ◽  
Extended Interpretation

Building on the original formulation of the autopoietic theory (AT), extended enactivism argues that living beings are autopoietic systems that extend beyond the spatial boundaries of the organism. In this article, we argue that extended enactivism, despite having some basis in AT’s original formulation, mistakes AT’s definition of living beings as autopoietic entities. We offer, as a reply to this interpretation, a more embodied reformulation of autopoiesis, which we think is necessary to counterbalance the (excessively) disembodied spirit of AT’s original formulation. The article aims to clarify and correct what we take to be a misinterpretation of AT as a research program. AT, contrary to what some enactivists seem to believe, did not (and does not) intend to motivate an extended conception of living beings. AT’s primary purpose, we argue, was (and is) to provide a universal individuation criterion for living beings, these understood as discrete bodies that are embedded in, but not constituted by, the environment that surrounds them. However, by giving a more explicitly embodied definition of living beings, AT can rectify and accommodate, so we argue, the enactive extended interpretation of autopoiesis, showing that although living beings do not extend beyond their boundaries as autopoietic unities, they do form part, in normal conditions, of broader autopoietic systems that include the environment.

scholarly journals Plausible Emergence of Autocatalytic Cycles under Prebiotic Conditions

Life ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Piotto ◽  
Lucia Sessa ◽  
Andrea Piotto ◽  
Anna Nardiello ◽  
Simona Concilio
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Reactions ◽  
Scientific Question ◽  
Physical Conditions ◽  
Autopoietic Systems ◽  
Simulation Based ◽  
Simple Rules ◽  
Prebiotic Environments ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Emergence Of Life ◽  
Philosophical Importance

The emergence of life in a prebiotic world is an enormous scientific question of paramount philosophical importance. Even when life (in any sense we can define it) can be observed and replicated in the laboratory, it is only an indication of one possible pathway for life emergence, and is by no means be a demonstration of how life really emerged. The best we can hope for is to indicate plausible chemical–physical conditions and mechanisms that might lead to self-organizing and autopoietic systems. Here we present a stochastic simulation, based on chemical reactions already observed in prebiotic environments, that might help in the design of new experiments. We will show how the definition of simple rules for the synthesis of random peptides may lead to the appearance of networks of autocatalytic cycles and the emergence of memory.

scholarly journals On the original formulation and on the resonance over time of Grassmann’s Law: remarks on a still open issue

2019 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-130
Author(s):  
Marianna Pozza
Keyword(s):  
Historical Linguistic ◽  
Present Article ◽  
The Other ◽  
Original Formulation ◽  
Open Issue ◽  
New Interpretation ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Over Time

Abstract The present article aims to reconsider in detail the original formulation of Grassmann’s law (GL), proposed by Grassmann (1863), since the main handbooks of Indo-European linguistics often repeat an extremely concise and sometimes incomplete formulation of the phenomenon without going into the details of Grassmann’s original reasoning, from which the definition of the phonetic “law” took its shape. In fact, we intend to highlight, on the one hand, the route whereby the scholar arrived at the decisive formulation of the principle which took its name from him, on the other the research ideas already present in the article of 1863 and only partially taken into account by subsequent studies. In addition to offering an overview, as complete as possible, of the resonance and influence of GL among linguists (both within a general and a historical linguistic perspective), over the years, the intent is to show the fruitfulness of ideas that still today could be used for new studies on the topic and to offer a possible, new interpretation of this phonetic change.

METABOLIC NETWORKS FROM (ℳ, ℛ) SYSTEMS AND AUTOPOIESIS PERSPECTIVE

2002 ◽  
Vol 10 (03) ◽  
pp. 265-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALBA N. ZARETZKY ◽  
JUAN C. LETELIER
Keyword(s):  
Category Theory ◽  
Metabolic Networks ◽  
Main Element ◽  
Abstract Representation ◽  
Autopoietic Systems ◽  
The One ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
General Abstract ◽  
Humberto Maturana ◽  
Physical Boundary

This paper is the first one of a series devoted to the analysis of metabolic networks. Its aim is to establish the theoretical framework for this analysis. Two different lines of research are considered: the one about metabolism-repair systems ((ℳ, ℛ)), introduced by Robert Rosen as an abstract representation of cell metabolic activity, and the concept of autopoiesis developed by Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela. Both concepts have been recently connected by Letelier et al., determining that the set of autopoietic systems is a subset of the set of general abstract (ℳ, ℛ) systems. In fact, every specific (ℳ, ℛ) system is an autopoietic one, being the boundary, which specifies each system as a unity, the main element of autopoietic systems which is not formalized in Rosen's representation. This paper introduces the definition of boundary — a physical boundary and a functional one — for (ℳ, ℛ) systems in the context of a representation using category theory. The concept of complete (ℳ, ℛ) system is also introduced by means of a process of completion in categories which is functorial, natural and universal.

scholarly journals Countable sets versus sets that are countable in reverse mathematics

Computability ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Sam Sanders
Keyword(s):  
Reverse Mathematics ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Major Theme ◽  
Original Formulation ◽  
Second Order Arithmetic ◽  
First Order ◽  
Order Arithmetic ◽  
Definition Of

The program Reverse Mathematics (RM for short) seeks to identify the axioms necessary to prove theorems of ordinary mathematics, usually working in the language of second-order arithmetic L 2 . A major theme in RM is therefore the study of structures that are countable or can be approximated by countable sets. Now, countable sets must be represented by sequences here, because the higher-order definition of ‘countable set’ involving injections/bijections to N cannot be directly expressed in L 2 . Working in Kohlenbach’s higher-order RM, we investigate various central theorems, e.g. those due to König, Ramsey, Bolzano, Weierstrass, and Borel, in their (often original) formulation involving the definition of ‘countable set’ based on injections/bijections to N. This study turns out to be closely related to the logical properties of the uncountably of R, recently developed by the author and Dag Normann. Now, ‘being countable’ can be expressed by the existence of an injection to N (Kunen) or the existence of a bijection to N (Hrbacek–Jech). The former (and not the latter) choice yields ‘explosive’ theorems, i.e. relatively weak statements that become much stronger when combined with discontinuous functionals, even up to Π 2 1 - CA 0 . Nonetheless, replacing ‘sequence’ by ‘countable set’ seriously reduces the first-order strength of these theorems, whatever the notion of ‘set’ used. Finally, we obtain ‘splittings’ involving e.g. lemmas by König and theorems from the RM zoo, showing that the latter are ‘a lot more tame’ when formulated with countable sets.

Introductory paper

1966 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 3-5
Author(s):  
W. W. Morgan
Keyword(s):  
Line Intensity ◽  
Classification Scheme ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Spectral Classification ◽  
Dimensional Array ◽  
Rr Lyrae ◽  
Metallic Line ◽  
Introductory Paper ◽  
Parameter Varying ◽  
Definition Of

1. The definition of “normal” stars in spectral classification changes with time; at the time of the publication of theYerkes Spectral Atlasthe term “normal” was applied to stars whose spectra could be fitted smoothly into a two-dimensional array. Thus, at that time, weak-lined spectra (RR Lyrae and HD 140283) would have been considered peculiar. At the present time we would tend to classify such spectra as “normal”—in a more complicated classification scheme which would have a parameter varying with metallic-line intensity within a specific spectral subdivision.

2.2. Working Group 2: Conceptual Definitions of Reference Coordinate Systems for Earth Dynamics

1975 ◽  
Vol 26 ◽  
pp. 21-26
Keyword(s):  
Coordinate System ◽  
Working Group ◽  
General Character ◽  
Coordinate Systems ◽  
Reference Coordinate System ◽  
Group 2 ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Earth Dynamics

An ideal definition of a reference coordinate system should meet the following general requirements:1. It should be as conceptually simple as possible, so its philosophy is well understood by the users.2. It should imply as few physical assumptions as possible. Wherever they are necessary, such assumptions should be of a very general character and, in particular, they should not be dependent upon astronomical and geophysical detailed theories.3. It should suggest a materialization that is dynamically stable and is accessible to observations with the required accuracy.

Symbiotic Stars at Optical, Infrared and Radio Wavelengths

1979 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 125-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Allen
Keyword(s):  
Temperature Regime ◽  
Type Star ◽  
Stellar Systems ◽  
Symbiotic Stars ◽  
Lower Excitation ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Original Type

No paper of this nature should begin without a definition of symbiotic stars. It was Paul Merrill who, borrowing on his botanical background, coined the termsymbioticto describe apparently single stellar systems which combine the TiO absorption of M giants (temperature regime ≲ 3500 K) with He II emission (temperature regime ≳ 100,000 K). He and Milton Humason had in 1932 first drawn attention to three such stars: AX Per, CI Cyg and RW Hya. At the conclusion of the Mount Wilson Ha emission survey nearly a dozen had been identified, and Z And had become their type star. The numbers slowly grew, as much because the definition widened to include lower-excitation specimens as because new examples of the original type were found. In 1970 Wackerling listed 30; this was the last compendium of symbiotic stars published.

Immunoferritin localization of intracellular antigens in positively stained frozen sections

1978 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-169
Author(s):  
K. T. Tokuyasu
Keyword(s):  
Surface Tension ◽  
Water Surface ◽  
Thin Layers ◽  
The Other ◽  
Positive Staining ◽  
Frozen Sections ◽  
The Past ◽  
Ultrathin Frozen Sections ◽  
Definition Of

During the past investigations of immunoferritin localization of intracellular antigens in ultrathin frozen sections, we found that the degree of negative staining required to delineate u1trastructural details was often too dense for the recognition of ferritin particles. The quality of positive staining of ultrathin frozen sections, on the other hand, has generally been far inferior to that attainable in conventional plastic embedded sections, particularly in the definition of membranes. As we discussed before, a main cause of this difficulty seemed to be the vulnerability of frozen sections to the damaging effects of air-water surface tension at the time of drying of the sections.Indeed, we found that the quality of positive staining is greatly improved when positively stained frozen sections are protected against the effects of surface tension by embedding them in thin layers of mechanically stable materials at the time of drying (unpublished).

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