Emergence and Self-Organization in Chemistry and Biology

Author:

Newth David,Finnigan John

Abstract

Complex systems display two key properties that distinguish them from systems that are merely very, very complicated: emergence and self-organization. Emergence is the appearance of behaviour at system level that is not implicit in the properties of the system’s components; self-organization implies the increase of a system’s internal order without the imposition of external control. Competing definitions of emergence and self-organization have led to confusion. Here, we follow the idea proposed by Anderson, that emergence and self-organization are signalled by symmetry-breaking. In general, a steady-state configuration of matter must exhibit the same symmetries as the equations that govern its dynamics. However, while this might apply to the component parts of a system in isolation, the whole system might display less symmetry because of the interactions between its individual parts. Here, we will explore several systems where microscopic symmetry is broken by the interaction between the component parts of the system. These examples show that macroscopic symmetry-breaking is an important factor in the formation of system level order from chemical reactions through to the organization of ecosystems.

Publisher

CSIRO Publishing

Subject

General Chemistry

同舟云学术

1.学者识别学者识别

2.学术分析学术分析

3.人才评估人才评估

"同舟云学术"是以全球学者为主线,采集、加工和组织学术论文而形成的新型学术文献查询和分析系统,可以对全球学者进行文献检索和人才价值评估。用户可以通过关注某些学科领域的顶尖人物而持续追踪该领域的学科进展和研究前沿。经过近期的数据扩容,当前同舟云学术共收录了国内外主流学术期刊6万余种,收集的期刊论文及会议论文总量共计约1.5亿篇,并以每天添加12000余篇中外论文的速度递增。我们也可以为用户提供个性化、定制化的学者数据。欢迎来电咨询!咨询电话:010-8811{复制后删除}0370

www.globalauthorid.com

TOP

Copyright © 2019-2024 北京同舟云网络信息技术有限公司
京公网安备11010802033243号  京ICP备18003416号-3