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

Figure 8

(a) Simplified dimensionless depiction of a sample volume subdivided by mineral grains or vesicle protocells (top) into a 3D array of adjacent memory elements with differing local concentrations of a compound of interest (shaded blocks, bottom). (b) Maximum number of 3D diffusion-limited memory elements per cubic meter. The width of the lines in plot (b) corresponds to variation caused by temperatures ranging from 20°C to 250°C.

(a)

(b)