论文标题
生活机制
Life's mechanism
论文作者
论文摘要
生物体的多种内部运作很难与一个定义生命状态的单一特征调和。实际上，生命的定义依赖于新兴的特性（增长，进化能力，代理）仅具有内在功能的症状。经验研究表明，包括棘轮或旋转酶和核酶在内的生物分子经历了重复的构象状态变化，直接或间接地由热力学梯度驱动。它们表现出不同的结构，但控制着依靠定向物理运动（DNA转录，翻译，细胞骨架传输）的过程，并共享由热力学梯度驱动的重复性单以上构象的原理，由热力学梯度驱动，产生可靠的单向动作：可靠的热引导动力发动机，利用热力学的动力学不相等来进行工作。认识到不同的生物分子表现出构象状态的变化，涉及方向运动，在自我调节网络中工作，允许机械定义：生命是一个自我调节的过程，在这种过程中，重要的是经历周期性的，单以上的构象状态变化，以使热力学使体育不平衡地转化为有针对性的运动，从而使局部减少运动，从而将其置于局部。生物是结构，包括利用热力学梯度的自主网络，以驱动执行工作的单皮构象变化。这些原理与任何特定的化学环境无关，并且可以应用于其他生物圈。
The multifarious internal workings of organisms are difficult to reconcile with a single feature defining a state of being alive. Indeed, definitions of life rely on emergent properties (growth, capacity to evolve, agency) only symptomatic of intrinsic functioning. Empirical studies demonstrate that biomolecules including ratcheting or rotating enzymes and ribozymes undergo repetitive conformation state changes driven either directly or indirectly by thermodynamic gradients. They exhibit disparate structures, but govern processes relying on directional physical motion (DNA transcription, translation, cytoskeleton transport) and share the principle of repetitive uniplanar conformation changes driven by thermodynamic gradients, producing dependable unidirectional motion: heat engines exploiting thermodynamic disequilibria to perform work. Recognition that disparate biological molecules demonstrate conformation state changes involving directional motion, working in self-regulating networks, allows a mechanistic definition: life is a self-regulating process whereby matter undergoes cyclic, uniplanar conformation state changes that convert thermodynamic disequilibria into directed motion, performing work that locally reduces entropy. Living things are structures including an autonomous network of units exploiting thermodynamic gradients to drive uniplanar conformation state changes that perform work. These principles are independent of any specific chemical environment, and can be applied to other biospheres.
