This article was taken from the December 2013 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Lee Cronin is on a mission to create "inorganic life". Recently named Regius Chair of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, the 40-year-old chemist is trying to find molecules that can assemble, replicate and evolve, but don't contain any carbon or DNA. In experiments this year he says he's had some "really tantalising hints of the very first molecular network that spontaneously arose from inorganic stuff" and is now waiting for the work to be peer reviewed.
His findings could open the door to engineering new lifeforms and developing molecular nanotechnologies. "I want to understand what chemistry came before biology," he says. "Cells didn't just spontaneously appear."
Cronin is building what he calls a chemical search-engine, or "chemputer", to map all the chemical possibilities. In his lab, a modified 3D printer alternates between printing plastic vessels and squirting chemicals into them in sequence. This can be used to 3D-print drugs -- with a set of chemical inks printing medication on demand.
Cronin is also now working on an evolutionary algorithm to help his search for life, by homing in on molecules with interesting features. "I'm going to search for compressible information," he says. "When I can find complex chemistry and I can compress that information, that will be what I'm looking for. They will be the'God molecules'."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
