Lee Cronin

when the reverse engineering of the assembly space, you can infer common roots and look at what's called the joint assembly space. But let's translate that into the experiment. Take a sample, bung it in the mass spec, take the top, say, 10 molecules, fragment them, And that gives you one fingerprint. Then you do it for another sample, you get another fingerprint.

Now the question is you say, hey, are these samples the same or different? And that's what we've been able to do. And by basically looking at the assembly space that these molecules create. Without any knowledge of assembly theory, you are unable to do it. With a knowledge of assembly theory, you can reconstruct the tree.

Now the question is you say, hey, are these samples the same or different? And that's what we've been able to do. And by basically looking at the assembly space that these molecules create. Without any knowledge of assembly theory, you are unable to do it. With a knowledge of assembly theory, you can reconstruct the tree.

Now the question is you say, hey, are these samples the same or different? And that's what we've been able to do. And by basically looking at the assembly space that these molecules create. Without any knowledge of assembly theory, you are unable to do it. With a knowledge of assembly theory, you can reconstruct the tree.

let's go to two leaves on different branches on the tree, right? What you can do by counting the number of differences, you can estimate how far away their origin was. And that's all we do. And it just works. But when we realized you could even use assembly theory to recapitulate the tree of life with no gene sequencing, we were like,

let's go to two leaves on different branches on the tree, right? What you can do by counting the number of differences, you can estimate how far away their origin was. And that's all we do. And it just works. But when we realized you could even use assembly theory to recapitulate the tree of life with no gene sequencing, we were like,

let's go to two leaves on different branches on the tree, right? What you can do by counting the number of differences, you can estimate how far away their origin was. And that's all we do. And it just works. But when we realized you could even use assembly theory to recapitulate the tree of life with no gene sequencing, we were like,

Yeah, absolutely. I would love to get old fossil samples and apply assembly theory mass spec and see if we can find new forms of life that are no longer amenable to gene sequencing because the DNA is all gone. DNA and RNA is quite unstable. But some of the more complex molecules might be there and might give you a hint of something new.

Yeah, absolutely. I would love to get old fossil samples and apply assembly theory mass spec and see if we can find new forms of life that are no longer amenable to gene sequencing because the DNA is all gone. DNA and RNA is quite unstable. But some of the more complex molecules might be there and might give you a hint of something new.

Yeah, absolutely. I would love to get old fossil samples and apply assembly theory mass spec and see if we can find new forms of life that are no longer amenable to gene sequencing because the DNA is all gone. DNA and RNA is quite unstable. But some of the more complex molecules might be there and might give you a hint of something new.

Or wouldn't it be great if you find a sample that's worth really persevering and doing the proper extraction to PCR and so on and then sequence it and then put it together.

Or wouldn't it be great if you find a sample that's worth really persevering and doing the proper extraction to PCR and so on and then sequence it and then put it together.

Or wouldn't it be great if you find a sample that's worth really persevering and doing the proper extraction to PCR and so on and then sequence it and then put it together.

Yeah, and it appears that you can do some dating. Now, there are really good techniques. There's radiocarbon dating. There is longer dating, going looking at radioactive minerals and so on. And you can also, in bone... you can look at what happens after something dies. You get what's called racemization, where the chirality in the polymers basically changes and you get decomposition.

Yeah, and it appears that you can do some dating. Now, there are really good techniques. There's radiocarbon dating. There is longer dating, going looking at radioactive minerals and so on. And you can also, in bone... you can look at what happens after something dies. You get what's called racemization, where the chirality in the polymers basically changes and you get decomposition.

Yeah, and it appears that you can do some dating. Now, there are really good techniques. There's radiocarbon dating. There is longer dating, going looking at radioactive minerals and so on. And you can also, in bone... you can look at what happens after something dies. You get what's called racemization, where the chirality in the polymers basically changes and you get decomposition.

The deviation from the pure enantiomer to the mixture you can have a time it gives you a time time scale on it half-life so you can date when it died i want to use assembly theory to see if i can date use it date death and things and and trace the tree of life and also decomposition of molecules do you think it's possible

The deviation from the pure enantiomer to the mixture you can have a time it gives you a time time scale on it half-life so you can date when it died i want to use assembly theory to see if i can date use it date death and things and and trace the tree of life and also decomposition of molecules do you think it's possible

The deviation from the pure enantiomer to the mixture you can have a time it gives you a time time scale on it half-life so you can date when it died i want to use assembly theory to see if i can date use it date death and things and and trace the tree of life and also decomposition of molecules do you think it's possible

oh yeah then without a doubt it may not be better than what because like the i was just at a conference where some brilliant people were looking at isotope enrichment and and looking at how life enriches isotopes and they're really sophisticated stuff that they're doing but i think there's some fun to be had there because it gives you another dimension of dating how old is this molecule um in terms of in or more importantly how long ago was this molecule produced by life