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Chemical Autopoiesis: Self-Replication of Micelles and Vesicles

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Advances in the Applications of Membrane-Mimetic Chemistry

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Abstract

Micelles and vesicles display a few characteristic features which are present in the structures of the living. First of all, they are self-assembling, i.e. they are examples of self-organization which is under thermodynamic control. Furthermore, micelles and vesicles are bounded structures, i.e. they have a closed interface (boundary) which discriminates an inside from an outside. This boundary acts as a semipermeable membrane, in the sense that it permits the input and the output of low molecular weight compounds with a certain degree of specificity. Also, the inside defines a geometrically well distinct microcompartment, and reactions occurring inside or at the interface of the aggregates are somewhat different from those occurring in the bulk solvent.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Polymere, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule, Universitlitätrasse 6, CH-8092, Zürich, Switzerland

    Peter Walde, Pascale Angelica Bachmann, Peter Kurt Schmidli & Pier Luigi Luisi

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  1. Peter Walde
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  2. Pascale Angelica Bachmann
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  3. Peter Kurt Schmidli
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  4. Pier Luigi Luisi
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA

    Teh Fu Yen

  2. North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA

    Richard D. Gilbert

  3. Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, USA

    Janos H. Fendler

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© 1994 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Walde, P., Bachmann, P.A., Schmidli, P.K., Luisi, P.L. (1994). Chemical Autopoiesis: Self-Replication of Micelles and Vesicles. In: Yen, T.F., Gilbert, R.D., Fendler, J.H. (eds) Advances in the Applications of Membrane-Mimetic Chemistry. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2580-6_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2580-6_3

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-6103-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-2580-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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