Seth Lloyd’s autocatalytic life

“In effect, an autocatalytic set of reactions is like a tiny, computer-controlled factory for producing chemicals. Some of these chemicals are the constituents of life. Did life begin as an autocatalytic set? Maybe so, We won’t know for sure until we identify the circuit diagram and the program for the autocatalytic set that first started producing cells and genes. The computional universality of autocatalytic sets tells us that some such program exists, but it doesn’t tell us that such a program is simple or easy to find.”

That’s an experiment worth trying for. My question is, how hard would it be to set up a distrubuted computing project like the SETI project that could test all possible combinations? Have we quantified enough of chemistry to use an emulation to try and uncover the chemical origins of life or would this require a lot of trial and error over many years?  Could we set up something that combines every CAS number and tries and tries?

Another School Non-Profit Idea

There already is a website where teachers can request supplies and be supplied them, but what about a site where teachers can post their ideas (for field trips etc) and then each user could donate a portion to the total cost? The usual fractional cash build up idea.

State by State GDP Growth

Global Insight // Our Perspective

From the global Insight Institute.

technorati tags:economics, GDP, states