Artificial chemistries - A review

This article reviews the growing body of scientific work in artificial chem istry. First, common motivations and fundamental concepts are introduced. S econd, current research activities are discussed along three application di mensions: modeling, information processing, and optimization. Finally, comm on phenomena among the different systems are summarized. It is argued here that artificial chemistries are "the right stuff" for the study of prebioti c and biochemical evolution, and they provide a productive framework for qu estions regarding the origin and evolution of organizations in general. Fur thermore, artificial chemistries have a broad application range of practica l problems, as shown in this review.