Version:1.0StartHTML:0000000178EndHTML:0000003835StartFragment:0000002618EndFragment:0000003799SourceURL:file://localhost/Users/atuck/Desktop/ACSsandiego_abstract.doc@font-face {  font-family: 'Times New Roman';}p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal { margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; }table.MsoNormalTable { font-size: 10pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; }div.Section1 { page: Section1; }In considering theevolution of prebiotic chemistry, the emergence of complexity and organizationin large populations of simple molecules is a phenomenon driven by themaximization of entropy production in a given molecular ensemble, constrainedby the initial atomic content and the boundary conditions, which includegravity, planetary rotation and the solar beam. Scale invariance is amanifestation of this process, since scale selectivity would correspond to afailure to maximize dissipation; it is found on a vast range of scales,including residue sequences in proteins and nucleic acids, the distribution ofsurfactants in aqueous films, throughout atmospheric physics and chemistry, andin the astronomical molecular clouds from which stars and planets are formed.Organization is what emerges after dissipation has been maximized. Naturalselection is an inherent property of non-equilibrium ensembles of matter. Itwill produce self-shielding of molecular populations, producing an environmentenabling nonlinearities, complexity and organization.

Geophysical constraints for prebiotic chemistry

243rd National Meeting (2012)

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.