Theses and Dissertations

Assembly theory as a way of defining the biotic/abiotic boundary has been established for molecules, but not yet for crystal structures. This is an assembly algorithm that calculates the complexity of biotic and abiotic minerals in order to constrain the quantitative fundamentals of "life". The calculation utilizes the Hermann-Mauguin space group symmetry and Wyckoff sites of mineral unit cells to calculate the path-building complexity of a crystal structure. 5,644 minerals from the American Mineralogist COD database were run through the algorithm. The five structures with the highest information complexity were a mix of biotic and abiotic minerals, indicating that further calculations on larger datasets would be pertinent. Furthermore, an expansion of the definition of mineral to include biotically synthesized solids would further research efforts aimed at using minerals as possible biomarkers.