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Apicultura - Conocimiento de La Abeja Manejo de La Colmena, 4e [Pierre Jean-Prost]

Mundi-Prensa (2007)
The highest level of complexity of matter is that expressed in living matter, the
substances and processes supporting life. In the course of evolution from nonliving
to living matter, more and more complex forms of matter have been generated. Life
has funneled molecular systems into specific types and improved their functions
toward efficiency and selectivity as high as required for the operation of the full
living organism.
Describing these highly efficient and selective systems and understanding their
functioning is a challenge for chemistry. It involves designing mimics that help to
unravel how these natural systems work. But, as important and in fact of wider
significance is to go beyond models and implement on the wider scene the knowledge
gained through mimicry to explore on one hand how similar functional features
may be borne by different structures and, on the other, to show that novel
functions of similar or even higher efficiencies and selectivities may be evolved
in
synthetic, nonnatural systems. Thus, mimicry of biological processes is crucial in
first progressing toward understanding them and then going beyond.
Chemistry and in particular supramolecular chemistry entertain a double
relationship with biology. Numerous studies are concerned with substances and
processes
of a biological or biomimetic nature. The scrutinization of biological processes
by chemists has led to the development of models for understanding them on a
molecular basis and of suitably designed effectors for acting on them.
On the other hand, the challenge for chemistry lies in the development of abiotic,
nonnatural systems, figments of the imagination of the chemist, displaying desired
structural features and carrying out functions other than those present in biology
with comparable efficiency and selectivity. Not limited by the constraints of
living
organisms, abiotic chemistry is free to invent new substances and processes. The
field of chemistry is indeed broader than that of the systems actually realized in
Nature.
Supramolecular chemistry has been following both paths. Molecular recognition,
catalysis, and transport processes are the basic functions investigated on both
the biomimetic and abiotic fronts over the years. As recognition implies
information, supramolecular chemistry has brought forward the concept that
chemistry is
also an information science, information being stored at the molecular level and
processed at the supramolecular level. On this basis, supramolecular chemistry is
actively exploring systems undergoing self-organization, that is, systems capable
of generating, spontaneously but in an information-controlled manner, well-defined
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functional architectures by self-assembly from their components, thus behaving as
programmed chemical systems.
The realization that supramolecular chemistry is intrinsically a dynamic
chemistry in view of the lability of the interactions connecting the molecular
components of a supramolecular entity led to the emergence of the concept of
constitutional dynamic chemistry (CDC) that extended these dynamic features
also to the molecular level. Dynamic entities are thus able to exchange their
components by reversible formation or breaking of noncovalent interactions or of
reversible covalent bonds, therefore allowing a continuous change in constitution
by reorganization and exchange of building blocks.
CDC introduces a paradigm shift with respect to constitutionally static chemistry
and takes advantage of dynamic diversity to allow variation and selection.
The implementation of selection in chemistry introduces a fundamental change
in outlook. Whereas self-organization by design strives to achieve full control
over the output molecular or supramolecular entity by explicit programming,
selforganization with selection operates on dynamic constitutional diversity in
response
to either internal or external factors to achieve adaptation in a Darwinian way.
Synthetic systems are thus moving toward an adaptive and evolutive chemistry.
Along the way, the chemist finds illustration, inspiration, and stimulation in
biological processes, as well as confidence and reassurance since they are proof
that such fantastic complexity of structure and function can be achieved on the
basis
of molecular components. The mere fact that biological systems exist demonstrates
that such a complexity can indeed exist in the world of molecules, despite our
present inability to understand how it operates and how it has come about. Indeed,
the molecular world of biology is only one of all the possible worlds of the
universe
of chemistry, that await to be created at the hands of the chemist!
It has been my privilege and pleasure to have participated in the development of
bioinspiration and biomimicry in chemistry, and in the steps beyond, over the last
40 years. This field has made striking progress, but it still has much to teach us.
I recommend it to you, the reader, for the promise and stimulation it holds. I wish
to warmly congratulate the authors of this volume for their efforts in presenting
the realizations and the perspectives of this most inspiring frontier of science.
Jean-Marie Lehn

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