Given a graph rewrite system, a graph G is a quine graph if it has a non-void maximal collection of non-conflicting matches of left patterns of graphs rewrites, such that after the parallel application of the rewrites we obtain a graph isomorphic with G. Such graphs exhibit a metabolism, they can multiply or they can die, when reduced by a random rewriting algorithm. These are introductory notes to the pages of artificial chemistry experiments with chemlambda, lambda calculus or interaction combinators, available from the entry page https://chemlambda.github.io/index.html . The experiments are bundled into pages, all of them based on a library of programs, on a database which contains hundreds of graphs and on a database of about 150 pages of text comments and a collection of more than 200 animations, most of them which can be re-done live, via the programs. There are links to public repositories of other contributors to these experiments, with versions of these programs in python, haskell, awk or javascript.