Cellular Dynamics in a 3D Molecular Dynamics System with Chemistry

We present a three-dimensional model of the formation of simple protocellular structures. The model is based on an earlier lattice artificial chemistiy due to Ono and Ikegami which consisted of a primitive metabolic system built on an artificial chemistry. This model computed the interactions of simple amphiphilic molecules which organized into membranelike structures. The current model, however, treats space as continuous rather than a lattice. Moreover, although forces between atoms are computed in a more realistic manner, an adaptive method of computing intermolecular forces allows for efficient computation.