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[Music]

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[Applause]

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okay thank you very much the next talk

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will be about the question on how

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molecular complexity can increase in the

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system which does not know any identical

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reproduction so that's the core question

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here is the depiction of that one we

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start very early times with small

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molecules at the end we will have life

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and in between over the time axis we

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have an increase we have a huge increase

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of complexity we know that Darwinian

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evolution can go do a very good job and

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that one but this can only start at a

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point where we have a system which can

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self reproducing

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before that period what about this

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stretch here what's happening there but

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whatever it is it has to obey one very

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important principle that's constant

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non-equilibrium we definitely need a

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constant long long constant

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non-equilibrium since otherwise we will

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have a situation where the system runs

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into equilibrium at a very short time

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forms a crystal maybe by a dissipation

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of energy when then this will stop in

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order to keep this a long going process

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we need to do something that keeps it in

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a non equilibrium state and made from to

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my opinion the most the most efficient

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way to do that is to change reaction

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conditions in an alternating way for

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example by switching some sort of a

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reaction condition switching some

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parameter which keeps the system

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following moving target so the system

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will start to run into a liquid then the

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parameter will change and then it will

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have to start a new and so on so how can

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the question now is how could this be

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done on early Earth which parameter

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would change periodically on early Earth

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and of course the first thing that comes

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to mind is the day/night cycle for

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example changing the dryness and wetness

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condition and this leads to dry weight

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cycling dry wet cycling we change the

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chemical potential of water and this

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change in chemical potential of water

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will induce such a situation on

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a long ongoing process this was well

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described in two papers which I want to

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cite here but Paul Higgs and David Ross

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and David Deamer but there are also

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other situations that we need to take

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into account for example there are

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cyclic processes which affect the

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pressure for example if you look at the

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tidal phenomena or if we look at

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periodic geological processes like

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geysers and if this happens then there

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are situations there are positions for

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example the earth crust one kilometer in

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depth where we can induce phase

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transitions for example a phase

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transition from gaseous carbon dioxide

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to supercritical carbon dioxide and we

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have that we can switch between two

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states of carbon dioxide that were very

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different in their thrall vent quality

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so we start switching a very good

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solvent into a very bad solvent this has

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interesting consequences for example we

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can run a cycle of condensation and

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hydrolysis when the carbon dioxide is

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supercritical it takes up a lot of water

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due to that the condensation step will

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be facilitated water will be taken away

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from the chain molecule and we can

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polymerize amino acids for example on

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the other hand when the carbon dioxide

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becomes subcritical again the water is

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coming back and the molecule will

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hydrolyze and it will be turned down

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into amino acids again so every switch

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in pressure will induce one cycle of

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condensation and hydrolysis but the

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cycle can do more for example it can

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start a generation of vesicles if we

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look at the carbon dioxide in a

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supercritical state it's a good solvent

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so it will saturate with water it will

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take up organic molecules and it will

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take up and fulfill acknowledge Jules

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when the carbon dioxide turns up

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critical again the water will condensate

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in small droplets the surfactant

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amphiphilic molecules will cover the

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surface and the organic molecules will

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be inside and when these droplets settle

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onto the surface then there will be an

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interaction between the amphiphilic

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layer on the droplet surface and the

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amplified layer down here and this will

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lead to the formation of vesicles that's

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how they look like in the experiment

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here and of course these vesicles will

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disintegrate after time especially when

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the carbon dioxide becomes supercritical

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again then we follow another cycle here

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so every change in pressure will induce

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one generation of vesicles so now we

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have a pool of peptides and we have

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generations of vesicles of course we

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will expect some interaction not of the

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hydrophilic ones not out of the

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hydrophobic ones but of those peptides

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which are amphiphilic

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for those peptides the vesicles will be

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something like a kinetic trap these

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peptides will be able to integrate into

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the membrane by integration that will

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become protected against hydrolysis so

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they will accumulate and they will

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increase in numbers I call this the

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parasitic step because in this position

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we will have an advantage to the peptide

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but no advantage to the mythical but

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when the peptides keep growing and we

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have reached the step in the experiment

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to when they are long enough they they

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get the capability of stabilizing the

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vesicles and if they do that then we

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have a mutual advantage to the peptide

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as well as the vesicle and the vesicle

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will survive several generations at this

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point there will be even stronger

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selection or advantage for these

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peptides and we also have reached this

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step here the functional step where the

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peptides start to affect for example

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permeability when the peptides have been

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formed we have a strong concentration

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gradient and this concentration gradient

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causes osmotic pressure and this

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shortens the lifetime of vesicles

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so by opening these channels many

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peptides are capable of doing that we

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all give them a chance to equilibrate

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this concentration and to release this

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pressure okay take the whole thing

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together we have the pool of peptides

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which is basically like a box of Lego's

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we are shaking and expecting random

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structures to form so there's no

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specific in that way but they're also

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the vesicles the vesicles pick out

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certain peptides and by being selected

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all the time for this with stability we

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will get more stable vesicles they will

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get bitter

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selecting a specimen and they were also

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developed functions so I think based on

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that we can say that we have some sort

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of a molecular or structural evolution

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which is based purely on accumulation

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and selection processes of course we

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have tried to do that in an experiment

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we have non experiment running which

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goes over three weeks which means 1000

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and 500 generations of vesicles

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let me start collecting peptides it's

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hundreds of peptides I just picked out a

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few ones but what's very common to these

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peptides is a positively charged lysine

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group in the head and more or less

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hydrophobic groups at the end side and

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these peptides of course n'e amphiphilic

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and will collect in the membrane one of

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the early specimen that we got was this

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peptide and this peptide we checked for

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its we checked out what the reason was

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why this peptide was being selected so

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we had this peptide synthesized

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commercial synthesis and added it to

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vesicles and we found three effects we

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found first that the size of the

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vesicles was reduced by approximately 50

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percent we found that the vesicle

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permeability was increased by 90 percent

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and we found that the peptide increased

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the physical stability thermal

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instability by a factor of 6 so the half

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dive time was increased by a factor of 6

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we believe that all these changes are

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mechanisms of survival so survival

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strategies of the vesicle so to speak

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with the last one it's obvious since by

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increasing the terminal now instability

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they live longer with a second one this

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means that the vesicle becomes capable

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of releasing osmotic pressure and with

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the first one we believe that the size

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effect means that smaller vesicles are

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more capable of surviving shear or

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uplink for example okay so now we

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believe that we are at this stage here

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now question is what comes next what

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will develop of course there's an end

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point here and this cannot go on forever

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at the

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point where the rate of selection is

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equal to the rate of degradation then

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everything will stop however there is a

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potential for a situation like that I

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told it in the beginning that there is a

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concentration gradient so this

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concentration gradient can be regarded

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as a source of free energies like a

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loaded battery so maybe it's assumed

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that the molecules passing through these

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channels could induce something like a

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high energy conformation to the peptide

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and this could be the starting point or

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something like a very primitive energy

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metabolism of some kind so this is

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something we had for right now and this

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is something which we want to follow in

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the experiment which are being done in

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the future ok at this point I want to

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leave this as a summary and I thank you

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for that's right I have to mention one

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thing we need to run this experiment in

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a way but it's kind of reproducible

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these specimens which have shown right

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now and all these changes which are

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shown right now one time experiments so

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what we need to do is we need to repeat

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and repeat this experiment we need to

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find which of these changes in which of

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progress is that we see here is really

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reproducible so I agree with you it

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would be already a success but of course

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we are curious what will happen right

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now we run the experiment for three

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weeks and that means 1500 generations of

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vesicles we could extend this to three

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months and have four times as many

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generations and of course we still

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expect a growth we can still see now

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they've had tides growing to lengths

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between ten and fourteen something like

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that and of course by that we would

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expect something more sophisticated to

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right that's right exact it's something

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we do at the moment too we have for

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example change the conditions like

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taking away the the vesicles after half

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of the experimental time I will talk

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about that on Wednesday it's a somewhat

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more in the detail on the experiment

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itself and we see some changes there we

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have a hard time to interpret them to be

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honest you see changes regarding we have

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a full list of peptides which we

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observed to develop and we see that they

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are significant but you cannot really

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interpret what that means but you are

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right some hidden information is in the

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collection of peptides which we obtained

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mm we worked with a long-chain fatty

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acid so it's

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akhtar Dacula decanoic acid soiree

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Octavia dick you'll I mean it's the

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mixture of these two

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that's the the membrane material so to

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speak yes we have strong hints that they

280
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are reaction in between the amphiphiles

281
00:13:42,139 --> 00:13:40,320
and the amino acids so far we have just

282
00:13:44,510 --> 00:13:42,149
ignored them but you're right they are

283
00:13:47,030 --> 00:13:44,520
there and they may take part in this

284
00:13:49,190 --> 00:13:47,040
game somehow so there may be mixed

285
00:13:51,290 --> 00:13:49,200
products in between the amphiphiles and

286
00:13:53,840 --> 00:13:51,300
the amino acids but we have not

287
00:13:55,880 --> 00:13:53,850
characterized them yet because we are

288
00:13:57,980 --> 00:13:55,890
still fighting the very complex

289
00:14:01,040 --> 00:13:57,990
analytical problem that we have to deal

290
00:14:03,370 --> 00:14:01,050
with with all these peptides thousands

291
00:14:06,050 --> 00:14:03,380
hundred thousands of peptides which form

292
00:14:09,680 --> 00:14:06,060
and which need to be sequenced which

293
00:14:11,510 --> 00:14:09,690
need to be identified so we have to do

294
00:14:17,449 --> 00:14:11,520
one step after the other but you're