ArticleJournal of molecular evolution2018
From Molecules to Life: Quantifying the Complexity of Chemical and Biological Systems in the Universe.
Article in Journal of molecular evolution, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- From rule-taking to rule-making chemistry: a minimal population-environment feedback model.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2026Article
- Review
- Molecular Complexity Constrained Early Amino Acid Recruitment into the Genetic Code.Genome biology and evolution · 2026Article
- On the history, synthesis, and medicinal use of cantharidin, LB-100, and their analogs.RSC medicinal chemistry · 2026Review
- Can the Timing of the Origin of Life Be Inferred from Trends in the Growth of Organismal Complexity?Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Quantifying the configurational complexity of biological systems in multivariate 'complexity space'.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2025Article
- Molecular complexity as a driving force for the advancement of organic synthesis.Nature reviews. Chemistry · 2024Review
- Measuring Molecular Complexity.ACS central science · 2024Article
- Investigating and Quantifying Molecular Complexity Using Assembly Theory and Spectroscopy.ACS central science · 2024Article
- HCMMD: systematic evaluation of metabolites in body fluids as liquid biopsy biomarker for human cancers.Aging · 2024Review
- Beyond nothingness in the formation and functional relevance of voids in polymer films.Nature communications · 2024Article
- The hierarchical organization of autocatalytic reaction networks and its relevance to the origin of life.PLoS computational biology · 2022Article
- Evolutionary Pathways and Trajectories in Antibiotic Resistance.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2021Article
- Information Entropy in Chemistry: An Overview.Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry variants for metabolomics research.Nature methods · 2021Review
- Chemical Fueling Enables Molecular Complexification of Self-Replicators*.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2021Article
- Construction and characterization of a novel glucose dehydrogenase-leucine dehydrogenase fusion enzyme for the biosynthesis of L-tert-leucine.Microbial cell factories · 2021Article
- Hsp70 and the Unfolded Protein Response as a Challenging Drug Target and an Inspiration for Probe Molecule Development.ACS medicinal chemistry letters · 2020Article
- Deciphering Biosignatures in Planetary Contexts.Astrobiology · 2019Article
- Data-Driven Astrochemistry: One Step Further within the Origin of Life Puzzle.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
Life is a complex phenomenon and much research has been devoted to both understanding its origins from prebiotic chemistry and discovering life beyond Earth. Yet, it has remained elusive how to quantify this complexity and how to compare chemical and biological units on one common scale. Here, a mathematical description of molecular complexity was applied allowing to quantitatively assess complexity of chemical structures. This in combination with the orthogonal measure of information complexity resulted in a two-dimensional complexity space ranging over the entire spectrum from molecules to organisms. Entities with a certain level of information complexity directly require a functionally complex mechanism for their production or replication and are hence indicative for life-like systems. In order to describe entities combining molecular and information complexity, the term biogenic unit was introduced. Exemplified biogenic unit complexities were calculated for ribozymes, protein enzymes, multimeric protein complexes, and even an entire virus particle. Complexities of prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, as well as multicellular organisms, were estimated. Thereby distinct evolutionary stages in complexity space were identified. The here developed approach to compare the complexity of biogenic units allows for the first time to address the gradual characteristics of prebiotic and life-like systems without the need for a definition of life. This operational concept may guide our search for life in the Universe, and it may direct the investigations of prebiotic trajectories that lead towards the evolution of complexity at the origins of life.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.