  With the rise of service-oriented computing, applications are more and more
based on coordination of autonomous services. Envisioned over largely
distributed and highly dynamic platforms, expressing this coordination calls
for alternative programming models. The chemical programming paradigm, which
models applications as chemical solutions where molecules representing digital
entities involved in the computation, react together to produce a result, has
been recently shown to provide the needed abstractions for autonomic
coordination of services. However, the execution of such programs over large
scale platforms raises several problems hindering this paradigm to be actually
leveraged. Among them, the atomic capture of molecules participating in concur-
rent reactions is one of the most significant. In this paper, we propose a
protocol for the atomic capture of these molecules distributed and evolving
over a large scale platform. As the density of possible reactions is crucial
for the liveness and efficiency of such a capture, the protocol proposed is
made up of two sub-protocols, each of them aimed at addressing different levels
of densities of potential reactions in the solution. While the decision to
choose one or the other is local to each node participating in a program's
execution, a global coherent behaviour is obtained. Proof of liveness, as well
as intensive simulation results showing the efficiency and limited overhead of
the protocol are given.
