Physics of Life. Part I: Animate Organism as an Active Condensed Matter Body

Dmitry A Kukuruznyak (1)

1 Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research

The non-equilibrium "active agents" establish bonds with each other and create a quickly evolving condensed state known as the active matter. Recently, the active matter composed of the motile self-organizing biopolymers demonstrated a biotic-like motion similar to cytoplasmic streaming. It was suggested that the active matter could produce cells. However, the active matter physics cannot yet define "an organism" and thus make a satisfactory connection to biology. This paper describes the organism made of the active agents, and explains how the active condensed matter could produce animate beings. It argues that life is a specific condensed matter phenomenon. It describes this phenomenon. From this perspective, it formulates a hypothesis regarding the origin of biological life. The discussion starts from the model active agents and the conceptual description of an animate form. Then it explains how chemical transformations actuate protein-based macromolecules. It conjectures how these macromolecules produce the basic cell. Then it discusses the role of water in biological cells. From a physicist's perspective, the manuscript describes ordered reconstructions of the active condensed matter driven by the ongoing condensation of this matter.

Mots clés: active matter; basic cell; molecular machines; pre-biotic evolution; abiogenesis; morphogenesis

Domaines: Matière Molle [cond-mat.soft]

Dmitry A Kukuruznyak. Physics of Life. Part I: Animate Organism as an Active Condensed Matter Body. 2017. ⟨hal-01575989v1⟩