Origins of Life: Introduction - Pattern Formation - Reaction Diffusion Systems | Chris Kempes

These videos are from the ComplexityExplorer.org course 'Origins of Life. This course aims to push the field of Origins of Life research forward by bringing new and synthetic thinking to the question of how life emerged from an abiotic world.
This course begins by examining the chemical, geological, physical, and biological principles that give us insight into origins of life research. We look at the chemical and geological environment of early Earth from the perspective of likely environments for life to originate.
Taking a look at modern life we ask what it can tell us about the origin of life by winding the clock backwards. We explore what elements of modern life are absolutely essential for life, and ask what is arbitrary? We ponder how life arose from the huge chemical space and what this early 'living chemistry' may have looked like.
We examine phenomena, that may seem particularly life like, but are in fact likely to arise given physical dynamics alone. We analyze what physical concepts and laws bound the possibilities for life and its formation.
Insights gained from modern evolutionary theory will be applied to proto-life. Once life emerges, we consider how living systems impact the geosphere and evolve complexity.
The study of Origins of Life is highly interdisciplinary - touching on concepts and principles from earth science, biology, chemistry, and physics. With this, we hope that the course can bring students interested in a broad range of fields to explore how life originated.
The course will make use of basic algebra, chemistry, and biology but potentially difficult topics will be reviewed, and help is available in the course discussion forum and instructor email. There will be pointers to additional resources for those who want to dig deeper.
This course is Complexity Explorer's first Frontiers Course. A Frontiers Course gives students a tour of an active interdisciplinary research area. The goals of a Frontiers Course are to share the excitement and uncertainty of a scientific area, inspire curiosity, and possibly draw new people into the research community who can help this research area take shape!

[@joedalton77]

Very good video! Just a tip: the thumbnails of the videos are all the same. It makes it harder to find something or engage new viewers on clicking.

[@openrecordscollective1847]

Searched this after learning what the patterns I see daily are known as and now I am mind blown at the mathematics behind it

[@PunmasterSTP]

Origins of life? More like “Oh man this video is ripe”…for helping us to expand our imaginations. It was fun to watch, and thanks for sharing!

[@Phrenotopia]

Found it! Good stuff!

[@TheRajmoney]

Go to 5:50 for pictures

[@sfratini]

In the context of the Origins of Life course and in general, this lecture is very hard to understand. Just a minute into the lecture, you are left with several questions, e.g., into what is U diffusing? What are x and y?

[@gkrusze]

I think that what this is modelling is a 2D surface containing a chemical, whose concentration at any time t and point (x,y) can be read with the function U(x, y, t). The first equation is then a general template of how you may write such equation as a differential equation in time. I also found useful to review the laplacian operator here: th-cam.com/video/EW08rD-GFh0/w-d-xo.html.