Prebiotic Geochemical Automata at the Intersection of Radiolytic Chemistry, Physical Complexity, and Systems Biology

Figure 6

(a) Simplified depiction of example 1D memory elements as chambers within a hydrothermal vent chimney complex. White shading across horizontal bars (left) corresponds to regions along four different sample pathways through the complex (right) which are net sources of a compound of interest. (b) Maximum number of 1D diffusion-limited memory elements per meter. The width of the lines in plot (b) corresponds to variation caused by temperatures ranging from 20°C to 250°C. Vent chimney image modified from original by Deborah Kelley, 2007.

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