From Chemical to Biological Organization

Open nonlinear systems are capable of self-organization in space and time. This realization constitutes a major breakthrough of modern science, and is currently at the origin of explosive developments in chemistry, physics and biology. Observations and numerical computations of nonlinear systems surprise us by their inexhaustible and sometimes nonintuitive variety of structures with different shapes and functions. But as well as variety one finds on closer inspection that nonlinear phenomena share universal aspects of pattern formation in time and space. These similarities make it possible to bridge the gap between inanimate and living matter at various levels of complexity, in both theory and experiment. This book is an account of different approaches to the study of this pattern formation. The universality of kinetic, thermodynamic and dimensional approaches is documented through their application to purely mathematical, physical and chemical systems, as well as to systems in nature: biochemical, cellular, multicellular, physiological, neurophysiological, ecological and economic systems. Hints given throughout the book allow the reader to discover how to make use of the principles and methods in different fields of research, including those not treated explicitly in the book.

I General Concepts.- From Chemical to Biological Organization: A Snapshot.- Pattern Formation: Thermodynamics or Kinetics?.- Spatiotemporal Organization in Biological and Chemical Systems: Historical Review.- Velocity Correlations and Irreversibility: A Molecular Dynamics Approach.- Nonlinear Dynamics, Self-Organization and the Symbolic Representation of Complexity.- Spectral Kinetics and the Efficiency of (Bio) Chemical Reactions.- II Chemical Organization.- Distinction Between Amplified Noise and Deterministic Chaos by the Correlation Dimension.- Exotic Chemical Reactions with Cu(II) Catalyst.- Bifurcation, Periodicity and Chaos by Thermal Effects in Heterogeneous Catalysis.- Spatial Patterns in (Bio)Chemical Reactions.- Experimental Study of the Target Patterns of the BZ Reaction Using Digital Picture Analysis.- Dispersion Curves and Pulse Wave Propagation in Excitable Systems.- Chemical Structures and Convection.- The Path to Hydrodynamic Instability During Reactions at Liquid Interfaces: Comparison of Experimental Image Analysis Results and Simulations.- Cellular Automata Simulating the Evolution of Structure Through the Synchronization of Oscillators.- III Biochemical Organization.- Potential Functions and Molecular Evolution.- Stochastic and Chaotic Processes in Biochemical Systems.- Protein Complexity.- Chemical Turnover and the Rate of Heat Production in Complex Reaction Systems.- Pattern Formation by Coupled Oscillations: The Pigmentation Patterns on the Shells of Molluscs.- Nonlinear Polymerization of Fibrinogen.- IV Cellular and Intercellular Organization.- Dynamic Phenomena in Molecular and Cellular Biology.- Thermodynamics of Energy Conversion in the Cell.- Cell Lineage and Segmentation in Development.- Models of Cytoplasmic Motion.- Developmental Controlof a Biological Rhythm: The Onset of Cyclic AMP Oscillations in Dictyostelium Cells.- Periodic Cell Communication in Dictyostelium discoideum.- V From Complex Cellular Networks to the Brain.- Memory and Paralysis Phenomena in the Immune Response: Interpretation in Terms of Multiple Steady State Transitions.- Spatiotemporal Patterns of Block in an Ionic Model of Cardiac Purkinje Fibre.- Perturbations of Next-Period Functions: Applications to Circadian Rhythms.- Brain Development and Self-Organization.- Do Coherent Patterns of the Strange Attractor EEG Reflect Deterministic Sensory-Cognitive States of the Brain?.- The Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease in the Hierarchy of Chaotic Attractors.- VI Ecological, Epidemiological and Economical Organization.- Ecosystems Under Varying Ambient Conditions.- Periodic and Chaotic Dynamics in Childhood Infections.- Analysis of Life Processes and Economic Systems by Methods of Thermodynamics.- Index of Contributors.