Signs of life

Program

10:00 am -12:00 pm: Introduction to Code Biology
The seminar will be introduced by Prof. Giorgio Vallortigara and Dr. Angelo Recchia Luciani

3:00 pm - 5:00 pm. The code theory on the origin of mind
The seminar will be introduced by Dr. Carlo Brentari

Abstract

Various experimental discoveries have shown that many organic codes exist in living systems and this means that they came into being throughout the history of life. The genetic code appeared in a population of primitive systems called common ancestor, and the signal transduction codes were associated with the split of the common ancestor into Archaea, Bacteria and Eukarya.
After the genetic code and the signal transduction codes the prokaryotes did not evolve any other codes whereas the eukaryotes continued to explore the coding space and gave origin to splicing codes, histone code, tubulin code, compartment codes and many others. The prokaryotes, on the other hand, did not increase the complexity of their cells whereas the eukaryotes gave origin to increasingly complex organisms and this suggests that there is a close link between codes and complexity.
Another important implication comes from the fact that there are two distinct molecular mechanisms at the basis of life, the copying of the genes and the coding of proteins. The first leads to natural selection and the second to natural conventions. The existence of copying and coding at the molecular level, in other words, means that there are two distinct mechanisms of evolution: evolution by natural selection, based on copying, and evolution by natural conventions, based on coding. This is the major concept of Code Biology: the existence of many organic codes in life means that there are two distinct molecular mechanisms in life and two distinct mechanisms of evolution.