title: Towards heterotic computing with droplets in a fully automated droplet-maker platform.
abstract: The control and prediction of complex chemical systems is a difficult problem due to the nature of the interactions, transformations and processes occurring. From self-assembly to catalysis and self-organization, complex chemical systems are often heterogeneous mixtures that at the most extreme exhibit system-level functions, such as those that could be observed in a living cell. In this paper, we outline an approach to understand and explore complex chemical systems using an automated droplet maker to control the composition, size and position of the droplets in a predefined chemical environment. By investigating the spatio-temporal dynamics of the droplets, the aim is to understand how to control system-level emergence of complex chemical behaviour and even view the system-level behaviour as a programmable entity capable of information processing. Herein, we explore how our automated droplet-maker platform could be viewed as a prototype chemical heterotic computer with some initial data and example problems that may be viewed as potential chemically embodied computations.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK.
authors.forename: Alon
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Henson
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK.
authors.forename: Juan Manuel Parrilla
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Gutierrez
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK.
authors.forename: Trevor
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hinkley
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK.
authors.forename: Soichiro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tsuda
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK lee.cronin@glasgow.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Leroy
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cronin
keywords: chemical evolution; chemical robotics; complex chemical systems; programmable morphogenesis; unconventional computation