Re: Categories used to describe molecules

[John Baez <baez@math.ucr.edu>]

Hi -

Dennis Stevenson wrote:

> I would appreciate references to the use of category theory
> to describe molecular structure and/or changes in molecules.

I recommend the papers by Christoph Flamm and collaborators:

https://arxiv.org/search/?searchtype=author&query=%22Flamm%2C+Christoph%22

I heard Flamm and Merkle talk at "Dynamics, Thermodynamics and
Information Processing in Chemical Networks" in Luxembourg last year,
and I wrote:

> Merkle is speaking. This is the first talk I’ve seen where someone
> argues strongly for the usefulness of category theory, then explains
> the definition of pushouts, and then illustrates it with examples from
> organic chemistry! Good thing I’d explained the definition of ‘category’
> earlier in the day! Double-pushout graph rewriting applied to chemistry,
> and implemented in software that creates pictures of molecules using TikZ.

Best,
jb


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