Title
The Evolution of Protocells in Chemorobotic Platforms
Authors
Laurie J. Points, Jonathan Grizou, Juan Manuel Parrilla Gutierrez, James Ward Taylor, Lee Cronin
Schedule
Date: Tuesday 5 Sept
Talk Time: TBA
Session: Physical artificial life 10:30
Keywords
Protocells, Automation, Evolution, Oil Droplets
Abstract
There is great interest in oil-in-water droplets both as protocell models and as simple systems that display astonishingly complex behaviours. Recently, we reported a chemorobotic platform capable of autonomously exploring and evolving the behaviours these protocells can exhibit. The platform enabled us to do a large number of reproducible experiments, allowing us to probe the non-linear relationship between droplet composition and behaviour. Herein we introduce this work, and also report on the recent developments we have made to this system. These include new platforms to simultaneously evolve the protocells’ physical and chemical environments and the inclusion of self-replicating molecules in the protocells.
