Dr. Jeremy England, MIT. "No Turning Back: The Nonrquilibrium Statistical Thermodynamics of Becoming (and remaining) Life-Like." Special Seminar. Hosted by the Aspuru-Guzik Group.
Abstract: There are certain, specific behaviors that are particularly distinctive of life. For example, living things self-replicate, harvest energy from challenging environmental sources, and translate experiences of past and present into actions that accurately anticipate the predictable parts of their future. What all of these activities have in common from a chemical physics standpoint is that they generally take place in the far-from-equilibrium regime, where dissipation drives strong dynamical irreversibility. We have therefore sought to understand the emergence and persistence of life-like phenomena in fluctuating, classical many-body systems by proving and applying general results in nonequilibrium statistical mechanics. How fast are self-replicators allowed to grow, and when do they spontaneously emerge? How much energy must a chemical network harvest to sustain itself away from equilibrium, and when can it learn to do so through self-organization? We report recent progress in tackling these questions and others using theory and simulation.
LOCATION:Pfizer Lecture Hall STATUS:CONFIRMED DTSTART:20180327T173000Z DTEND:20180327T183000Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR