TABLE OF CONTENTS As the wind of time blows into the sails of space, the unfolding of the universe nurtures the evolution of matter under the pressure of information. From divided to condensed and on to organized, living, and thinking matter, the path is toward an increase in complexity through self-organization.
Thus emerges the prime question set to science, in particular to chemistry, the science of the structure and transformation of matter: how does matter become complex? What are the steps and the processes that lead from the elementary particle to the thinking organism, the (present!) entity of highest complexity?
And there are two linked questions: an ontogenetic one, how has this happened, how has matter become complex in the history of the universe leading up to the evolution of the biological world, and an epigenetic one, what other and what higher forms of complex matter can there be to evolve, are there to be created?
Chemistry provides means to interrogate the past, explore the present, and build bridges to the future. Jean-Marie Lehn
Self-assembly is a process in which a set of components or constituents spontaneously forms an ordered aggregate through their global energy minimization. A vast number of macromolecules (like proteins, nucleic acid sequences, micelles, liposomes, and colloids) in nature adapt their final folding and conformation by self-assembly processes. There exist many examples in the literature of natural self-assemblies which occur spontaneously due to the forces of nature. Examples of such natural self-assemblies are observed at...
