Living organisms are stable chemical objects created by spontaneous organization. Once an embryo is created, it "knows" by itself how to organize chemicals to form a human. Similar processes of chemical self-organization can be observed, for example, in a mixture of malonic acid, sulfuric acid, bromine, bromide and a transition metal complex catalyst (reaction of Belousov-Žabotinski). Here, too, the development can be observed through various stages up to "maturity" characterized by the same dynamic structure. The "chemical embryo" can be recreated by re-shuffling the mixture similarly as the organism re-emerges from the germ cells. The researchers at the Institute of Complex Systems of the FFPW USB analysed a very simple model, which counts only two factually linear processes, internal growth and diffusion. When experimenting with noise levels, they found conditions where it is possible to simulate development from a "chemical embryo" to adulthood, i.e. chemical turbulence. The basic qualitative characteristics of the development of a living organism can already be seen in this simple model.
But the result raises an even more fundamental question: Is the description of the world correct using differential equations? Should not be described by means of discrete mathematics and illusion of continuity replaced with noise. We all know that matter consists of discrete molecules as well as larger discrete objects. Are not the problems faced by the mathematical description of natural phenomena systematically given due to erroneous assumptions?
Videos:
- The Belousov-Zhabotinski experiment
- The hodgepodge machine with noise
Article by Dalibor Štys, Renata Štysová Rychtáriková, Anna Zhyrová, Kryštof Štys and Petr Jizba (Noisy hodgepodge machine and the observed mesoscopic behavior in non-stirred Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction: Optimal noise and hidden noise in the Hodgepodge machine) was published in The European Physical Journal Special Topics in March 2019.
