Cell Morphology

The ensemble of reactions that constitute life must occur in an ordered manner, and experience rates sufficiently high when compared to the inorganic world under mild environmental conditions; this calls for catalysts—i.e., compounds able to decrease the energy barrier (known as activation energy) of only the germane chemical processes for life, thus proving highly active and selective. Another requirement for life is separation of those reactions, and corresponding products, from the outer medium; this is possible via full containment by a bilayered membrane, made of amphipathic compounds—with their hydrophilic heads facing either inside or outside aqueous medium, and their hydrophobic tails facing each other. Finally, said reactions—constrained to occur within the aforementioned autonomous space, should be susceptible to regulation in their rate of occurrence; this can be achieved by interaction of each reaction with substrates or products of that or other reactions, complemented by generation of new catalysts according to some predefined molecular code.