Huskey and Epstein 23 compared the homogeneous FR under continuous-flow stirred-tank reactor (CSTR) conditions and batch conditions. Their observations and kinetic simulations led them to conclude that catalytic hysteresis loops observed in the CSTR-formose reaction do not arise from chemical instabilities, but rather from chemical reactions that are slow relative to the time scale of the experiment. However, they later constructed new models showing bistability and built a model for the autocatalytic phase of the FR consistent with experimental results (Figure ). The aldotetrose mechanism proposed by as the source of autocatalysis is not part of this mechanism, but other molecules may help seed the retro-aldol reactions which help this reaction to be diversity-generating. It is thus possible that the mechanism of the reaction involves the operation of numerous concurrent autocatalytic cycles, and this may better explain the observed product distribution . While it may be that there are formal intermolecular catalytic interactions in the FR (e.g., ), the important point is that the reaction network itself appears to be self-propagating on many levels, and in principle could operate indefinitely in a et alflow-through regime. It may thus be useful to recognize the FR's unique inherent complexity to better understand it both experimentally and theoretically .