Minimal self-replicating units

Minimal theoretical composition: 5 elements: C,H,N,O,P

Environment = water, NH4+, 4 NTP-s, lipids

Johnston et al. Science 2001 292:1319-1325 RNA-catalyzed RNA polymerization:

accurate and general RNA-templated primer extension.

Minimal programs

perl -e "print exp(1);" 2.71828182845905

excel: = EXP(1) 2.71828182845905000000000

f77: print*, exp(1.q0) 2.71828182845904523536028747135266

Mathematica: N[ Exp[1],100] 2.71828182845904523536028747135266249775

7247093699959574966967627724076630353547594571382178525166427

• Underlying these are algorithms for arctangent and hardware for RAM and printing.

• Beware of approximations & boundaries.

• Time & memory limitations. E.g. first two above 64 bit floating point:

52 bits for mantissa (= 15 decimal digits), 10 for exponent, 1 for +/- signs.

Previous slide

Next slide

Back to first slide

View graphic version