Round 1: and Author Response The article “Emergent Chemical Behaviour in Variable-Volume Protocells” focuses on the consequences that a changing volume may have on a set of reactions encapsulated within a semipermeable vesicle; in particular, this kind of compartment can degenerate existing bistable reactions, or promote emergent bistability from very simple reactions, which are not bistable in bulk conditions.
The mathematical methods used to deal with the problem are based on approximations and require the support of a huge number of simulations; on the other side, the approximations themselves constitute an interesting feature of the article and allow interesting discussions on the involved physical situations.