About the Authors

Filippo Caschera

Affiliations ProtoLife Inc., San Francisco, California, United States of America, Institute of Physics and Chemistry, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

Gianluca Gazzola

Affiliation ProtoLife Inc., San Francisco, California, United States of America

Mark A. Bedau

Affiliations ProtoLife Inc., San Francisco, California, United States of America, European Center for Living Technology, Venice, Italy, Reed College, Portland, Oregon, United States of America, Initiative for Science, Society, and Policy, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

Carolina Bosch Moreno

Affiliation ProtoLife Inc., San Francisco, California, United States of America

Andrew Buchanan

Affiliation ProtoLife Inc., San Francisco, California, United States of America

James Cawse

Affiliations ProtoLife Inc., San Francisco, California, United States of America, Cawse and Effect, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, United States of America

Norman Packard

Affiliations ProtoLife Inc., San Francisco, California, United States of America, Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States of America, European Center for Living Technology, Venice, Italy

Martin M. Hanczyc

martin@ifk.sdu.dk

Affiliations ProtoLife Inc., San Francisco, California, United States of America, Institute of Physics and Chemistry, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

Competing Interests

The funding for this study was provided by ProtoLife Srl. This study was completed while J Cawse was an employee of ProtoLife Srl. J Cawse is now the owner/founder of Cawse and Effect. There are no patents related to this study. These affiliations and funding sources do not affect the authors' adherence to PLos Ones policy on data sharing. All of the authors: Filippo Caschera, Gianluca Gazzola, Mark Bedau, Carolina Bosch Moreno, Andrew Buchanan, James Cawse, Norman Packard, and Martin Hanczyc were employed by ProtoLife Srl for the entire development and execution of this project.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: FC GG MAB JNC NHP MMH. Performed the experiments: FC CBM AB MMH. Analyzed the data: FC GG MMH. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MMH. Wrote the paper: FC GG MAB AB JNC NHP MMH.