In the second in a series of five public lectures concentrating on origins research, Stuart Kauffman, a biologist specializing in the theory of complex biological systems, will discuss Molecular Autonomous Agents: a possible physical definition of life.

The free lecture, scheduled for Thursday at 8 p.m. in Rm. 137 of McMaster's Information Technology Building, will cover topics from Kauffman's third book, Investigations, which explores the requirements for the emergence of a general biology that will govern biospheres anywhere in the cosmos.

During the talk he'll develop a definition of an “autonomous agent”, or a living organism that appears to act to promote its own survival. Kauffman says even simple organisms such as bacteria are able to sense and move towards nutrients in their environment, but that action alone doesn't mean it's autonomous.

Kauffman is a founding member of the Santa Fe Institute, a centre for interdisciplinary research in complex systems, and he recently founded the Bios Group LP. He has held academic appointments at the University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania and University of New Mexico.

The Origins Public Lecture Series is designed to bring world class researchers to McMaster to give free public talks in areas of fundamental scientific research and broad public interest. The multidisciplinary lectures aim to focus in a non-technical way on some of the foremost questions of our day.

These lectures are just one aspect of a proposed new Origins Institute (OI) at McMaster whose scientific research focus will be to create and foster interdisciplinary research on these interrelated origins themes.

For more information visit http://www.physics.mcmaster.ca/currentevents/origins/.