Molecules as Automata

Abstract

Molecular biology investigates the structure and function of biochemical systems starting from their basic building blocks: macromolecules. A macromolecule is a large, complex molecule (a protein or a nucleic acid) that usually has inner mutable state and external activity. Informal explanations of biochemical events trace individual macromolecules through their state changes and their interaction histories: a macromolecule is endowed with an identity that is retained through its transformations, even through changes in molecular energy and mass. A macromolecule, therefore, is qualitatively different from the small molecules of inorganic chemistry. Such molecules are stateless: in the standard notation for chemical reactions they are seemingly created and destroyed, and their atomic structure is used mainly for the bookkeeping required by the conservation of mass.