Out‐of‐Equilibrium (Supra)molecular Systems and Materials: An Introduction

Abstract

What is life? What can we learn from living systems for the design of advanced (supra)molecular systems? What could the new properties of such systems be? Where will such systems find their applications in the future? And once we will have constructed such lifelike systems, will we better understand life itself? These are emerging and stimulating questions at the interface of biology, biological engineering, synthetic biology, origin-of-life research, molecular chemistry, supramolecular self-assembly, systems chemistry, nanoscience, and materials science. This book serves to be a switchboard for connecting conceptual advances in these disciplines to the overarching topic of out-of-equilibrium (supra)molecular systems engineering. Living systems, first on foremost, inspire with their capability for self-organization leading to the formation of emergent functions such as self-regulation, adaptation, evolution, and self-replication. Examples can be extremely widespread across all scales: (i) development of human societies, (ii) predator/prey (fox/rabbit) oscillators on isolated islands, (iii) swarm behavior of flocks of bird or schools of fish, (iv) quorum sensing in certain bacteria that turn luminescent collectively upon reaching a critical population density, (v) morphogenesis in an embryo, or (vi) cell division. Many of the underlying molecular principles at the small scale have been unraveled by molecular biology in the recent decades. One of the key natural principles for complex and emergent behavior is the ability to make sense of a complex sensory landscape to define a precise output behavior. This is done via biological signaling reaction networks that provide localized computational power using principles such as autocatalytic activation, negative feedback loops, memory modules, timer clocks, and more. The circadian clock setting our day and night rhythm and its adaptation during long-distance travel (jet lag) is a formidable example to highlight how a biological reaction network regulates humans in an oscillating state between asleep