The success of Artificial Life depends on whether it will help solving the conceptual problems of biology. Biology may be viewed as the science of the transformation of organizations. And, yet, biology lacks a theory of organization. We use this as an example of the challenge that Artificial Life must meet. "If - as I believe - physics and chemistry are conceptually inadequate as a theoretical framework for biology, it is because they lack the concept of function, and hence that of organization. [...] [P]erhaps, therefore, we should give the [...] computer scientists more of a say in the formulation of Theoretical Biology." -- Christopher Longuet-Higgins, 1969 [29] 1 Life and the organization problem in biology There are two readings of "life": "life" as an embodied phenomenon and "life" as a concept. Foucault [20] points out that up to the end of the eighteenth century life does not exist: only living beings. Living beings are but a class in the series of all things in the world. T...

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INTRODUCTION II. PHOTOSYSTEM 0: THE MECHANISM (a) Light-induced RC Dipoles and their Metastability (b) Distance Traversed within the RC by the Excited or Separated Electron (c) Number of Separated Electrons per RC (b) Surface Area per RC (c) Relative Dielectric Constant of the Membrane and the RC (d) Estimated Values (a) Single Mode and Conduction (b) Two Different Modes (c) Flexible Coupling (d) Local Coupling III. EVOLUTION MODEL FOR PHOTOSYNTHESIS (c) PS0 Diversification (b) Photosystem Combination; Addition of the bc 1 Complex 1. The Relations between Light Intensity, Membrane Potential, Redox State of ATPsynthase and the Q-cycle (a) Mode changes 2. Combined PS0/PS Activity 4. Possible Relics of MTS/PS0 Activity VI. CONCLUSION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 4 Summary: Photosystem 0 (PS0) is a theoretical, simple, dynamic, membrane-based mechanism for free energy gain---in the form of ATP---from fluctuating light. The PS0 reaction centers have no reduc

PDF corresponds to the article as it appeared upon acceptance. Fully formatted PDF and full text (HTML) versions will be made available soon. On the origin of life in the Zinc world: 1. Photosynthesizing, porous edifices built of hydrothermally precipitated zinc sulfide as cradles of life on Earth