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life was surely forced to explore self-replicating molecular systems. A good self-
replicating system is a system where self-replication is realized in the context of a
wider system of reactions. In other words, replication is coupled with metabolism by
means of a reaction system able to keep stability and robustness with respect to the
external variations. Membranes are the essential devices for the realization of this
coupling. Therefore, cells could have emerged, from the prebiotic attempts, when
cell replication became a synchronized process of polymer and membrane replica-
tion together with all the underlying reactions also connecting the two processes.
In this case, replication is not only a replication of molecules, but a more gen-
eral process of
reproduction
, where not only molecules, but the entire processes
of their intertwined reactions are replicated. In conclusion, a good replication of
molecules can be reached within a more complex process that includes the replica-
tion of molecules. In this sense, life followed a strategy where a solution is searched
for by framing the original problem in a more general context. This is a resolu-
tion pattern recurrent in many life phenomena, that is,
life thinks at large
.Itisalso
interesting to remark that, it corresponds to a well-known strategy, in the solution
of mathematical problems, termed by Polya [187]
Inventor's paradox
:“Themore
ambitious plan may have more chances of success”.
We do not know, at present, the details which explain why molecule replication
within cells is able to reach a more reliable and efficient level, by escaping the limi-
tation of Eigen's paradox. However, surely replication, in the context of cell repro-
duction, benefits from the evolutive mechanism, in the sense that natural selection
pushes toward the best reproductive processes, which also selects the best molecule
replication processes. Now we present another life paradox, the
enzymatic para-
dox
, where we will consider metabolism and we show that an intrinsic contradic-
tion of this phenomenon can be solved if metabolism is joined with replication in a
reproductive system. Therefore, if replication postulates metabolism, according to
Eigen's paradox, vice versa metabolism postulates replication and the deep interplay
between these processes in reproductive systems follows as an intrinsic necessity of
their basilar mechanisms. This means that the long debate about a priority between
them seems meaningless, on the basis of their mutual logics. The cell is essentially
a reproductive unit, and in reproduction phenomena replication and metabolism are
the two faces of the same coin.
Another life paradox is the
evolutive paradox
. Is evolution driven by the search
toward the best fitness/dominance in a given environment, or more precisely its
dynamics has an internal nature which is not caused by the environment, but is only
selected by it? In other words, life realizes its fitness for evolving or evolves for
reaching the best fitness. The first case seems to be more appropriate, according to
the error/chance strategy of life, which freely explores possibilities, subsequently
selected by the environment. This means that life evolves just for evolving, and
fitness is a by-product of this tautological, intrinsic necessity.
Analogously, the
morphogenetic paradox
arises when we consider that differ-
entiation postulates a previously determined form to be realized, but how and when
this form realization does emerge in cells which are not predetermined to express
forms?
