Catalyst molecules help make a reaction happen, but don’t bind permanently. Like a frying pan makes a grilled cheese: the sandwich is served without the frying pan attached.

2 Kauffman noted that the molecule created in one reaction can become the catalyst for another. If pairs of reactions created the catalysts for each other, we would have a closed autocatalytic set.

3 Kauffman noted that the molecule created in one reaction can become the catalyst for another. If pairs of reactions created the catalysts for each other, we would have a closed autocatalytic set. A and B are “food” molecules; providing the energy to drive the system.

Origins of Life - Brainstorming Workshop - CERN Kauffman hypothesizes that some autocatalytic sets will be have faster cycles than others. They will be “selected” in Darwin’s sense. “Evolution without a genome”—eventually resulting in DNA.

5 “No rigorous analysis of the putative evolvability of Kauffman’s hypothesis has been carried out so far.” “Previous analysis just ‘forgot’ that Darwinian evolution is a population concept …what is needed is to simulate a population of compartments enclosing autocatalytic sets.” Origins of Life - Brainstorming Workshop - CERN 2011:

6 Can Kauffman’s autocatalytic sets be units of evolution? “No! The original Farmer-type networks always have one attractor. Kauffman’s original polymer chemistry when enclosed in a finite space will eventually crystallize into the same attracting network and can never ever be a Darwinian unit.” “However, the addition of rare novel species can result in the ignition of a novel self-reproducing viable loop. In this case selection could work.” Origins of Life - Brainstorming Workshop - CERN 2011: