The Nature of Stability in Replicating Systems

Abstract

We review the concept of dynamic kinetic stability, a type of stability associated specifically with replicating entities, and show how it differs from the well-known and established (static) kinetic and thermodynamic stabilities associated with regular chemical systems. In the process we demonstrate how the concept can help bridge the conceptual chasm that continues to separate the physical and biological sciences by relating the nature of stability in the animate and inanimate worlds, and by providing additional insights into the physicochemical nature of abiogenesis.

Keywords

• thermodynamic stability
• kinetic stability
• equilibrium
• steady state
• life
• complexity
• teleonomy