Fwd: Living Energies mini-series - Why Are Organisms So Complex?

[Guest guest]

29 Jan 2004 15:01:21 -0000

Living Energies mini-series - Why Are Organisms So Complex?

press-release

 

The Institute of Science in Society Science Society Sustainability

http://www.i-sis.org.uk General Enquiries sam Website/Mailing List

press-release ISIS Director m.w.ho

=================================================== Why Are Organisms So

Complex? ************************** A Lesson in Sustainability

******************* Complexity is linked to productivity and sustainability. Dr.

Mae-Wan Ho explains. References for this article are posted on ISIS members’

website. www.i-sis.org.uk The organism is like an ecosystem in many respects. It

is highly complex. And like the ecosystems, it is useful to look at its

complexity is in terms of organised, nested heterogeneity. The simplest kind of

nested heterogeneity is a fractal structure – with fractional dimensions in

between the usual 1, 2 or 3 - that is similar on many, if not every scale.

Fractal geometry offers a ready mathematical description of the simplest kind of

organised complexity. Some

years ago, I showed how such a system is optimised for storing and mobilising

energy. In other words, it captures and stores useful coherent energy, and

mobilises it most efficiently and rapidly. The rigorous arguments [1-3] involves

formal thermodynamics, a discipline that deals with energy transformation; but

can be stated in a much more intuitive form [4], which I shall reproduce here.

How organisms make a living ********************** ‘Sustainability’ has become a

buzzword, but it is difficult to say exactly what it means. Rather than indulge

in getting a correct definition, I want to show that there is a lot we can learn

about sustainability by studying how organisms sustain themselves, or keep

alive. The pre-requisite for keeping away from thermodynamic equilibrium – death

by another name – is the ability to capture energy and material from the

environment to develop, to grow and to recreate oneself from moment to moment

during one’s life time. The organism not only sustains

itself dynamically, it also reproduces future generations, which is part and

parcel of sustainability. An organism needs, first of all, physical barriers

that separate inside from the outside, though not completely. It also needs a

dynamic structure that enables it to store as much energy and material as

possible, and to use the energy and material most efficiently and rapidly, with

the least amount of waste and dissipation. Dissipation means the loss of useful

energy from the system. The organism has solved those problems over billions of

years of evolution. It has an obviously nested physical structure. Our body is

enclosed and protected by a rather tough skin, but we can exchange energy and

material with the outside, as we need to, we eat, breathe and excrete. Within

the body, there are organs, tissues and cells, each with a certain degree of

autonomy and closure. Within the cells there are numerous intracellular

compartments that operate more or less autonomously from the rest

of the cell. And within each compartment, there are molecular complexes doing

different things, such as transcribing genes, making proteins and extracting

energy from our food. And all those compartments are perfectly orchestrated. The

organism is indeed so perfectly coordinated that an actively mobile animal

typically appears liquid crystalline under the polarising microscope, due to the

coherent motions of all its molecules [1] (see Fig. 1). This perfect

coordination depends to a large extent on how energy is mobilised within the

organism. It turns out that energy is mobilised in cycles, which can be thought

of as dynamic boxes, and they come in all sizes, from the very fast to the very

slow, from the global to the most local. Biologists have long puzzled over why

biological activities are predominantly rhythmic or cyclic, and much effort has

gone into identifying the centre of control, and more recently to identifying

master genes that control biological rhythms, all to no avail.

Diagram available on the ISIS members website Figure 1. Inside the liquid

crystalline brine-shrimp (200X). Cycles make sense ************** The organism

is full of cycles possibly because cycles make thermodynamic sense. Cycles

involve perpetual returns to the same states, they give dynamic stability as

well as autonomy to the organism. Cycles also enable the activities to be

coupled, or linked together, so that those yielding energy can transfer the

energy directly to those requiring energy, and the direction can be reversed

when the need arises. These symmetrical, reciprocal relationships are most

important for sustaining the system. That’s how our metabolism and physiology is

organised: closing the cycle and linking up. I have drawn a diagram to represent

the nested cycles that span all space-time scales, the totality of which make up

the life cycle of the organism (Fig. 2). I have also proposed that the life

cycle has a self-similar fractal structure, so if you magnify each

cycle, you will see that it has smaller cycles within, looking much the same as

the whole. The system effectively stores and mobilises energy over all

space-times that are coupled together, so energy can get from any space-time

compartment to every other, from the local to the global and vice versa. This

complex dynamical structure is the secret of how the system can sustain itself

as a whole. Diagram available on the ISIS members website Figure 2. The life

cycle of the organism consists of a self-similar fractal structure of cycles

turning within cycles In the ideal, the system is always tending towards a

dynamic balance, expressed in another diagram (Fig. 3). The simple equation, S D

S = 0, inside the cycle, says there is an overall internal balance and

compensation of energy so that the system organisation is maintained, and the

necessary dissipation (entropy, S, made up of degraded, incoherent energy) is

exported to the outside, S D S > 0. But that’s the abstract ideal. In

practice, dissipation within the system goes to a minimum, not quite zero. In

other words, the system does grow old and eventually die, but only very slowly.

Diagram available on the ISIS members website Figure 3. The organism consists of

internally balanced cyclic processes coupled to energy flow. Minimum dissipation

means, in one sense, that energy (as well as material) going into the system is

used many times over before it is exported to the outside. Intuitively, one can

see that the more complex the dynamical structure, the more cycles there are,

the longer the energy remains in the system, and the least amount is dissipated.

In other words, increase in space-time differentiation leads to increase in the

energy that can be stored in the system. Sustainable systems as organisms

************************* Can we look at a sustainable ecosystem, and ultimately

the sustainable global ecosystem in the same way? I have suggested that we can

some years ago [5]. Since then, evidence has

been accumulating in ecology that productivity – rate of production of biomass

– generally, though not always goes up with biodiversity (see “Energy,

productivity & biodiversity”, this series), although the precise causal

relationship is still uncertain. In my theory based on energy storage,

productivity and the complexity of space-time differentiation – a correlate of

biodiversity - are completely linked: the more complex the space-time

differentiation, the greater the energy stored, which is productivity by another

name. It also explains why greater energy input doesn’t necessarily increase

productivity: if the energy is supplied at a rate greater than the space-time

differentiation of the system can assimilate, then no further increase in

productivity can occur. An over-abundant supply of energy can indeed unbalance

the system, leading to a decrease in space-time differentiation, and hence a

fall in productivity (hence the unimodal relationship between diversity and

productivity,

see “Energy, productivity & biodiversity”). Evidence linking productivity and

biodiversity has also emerged in agriculture. David Tilman and his colleagues in

the University of Minneapolis in the United States have recently produced the

best experimental evidence that biodiverse fields are more productive [6-7],

although the precise explanation is still hotly debated [8]. Other ecologists

are also rediscovering how it is the symbiotic reciprocal relationships, rather

than competition, which sustain the ecosystem as a whole [9]. It is a case of

closing circles and joining up to build a more complex space-time

differentiation in the ecosystem. Sustainable farming across the world relies on

cultivating a diversity of crops and livestock to maximise internal input, which

effectively closes up cycles and maximises the nested, space-time structure of

the system. This wisdom has informed traditional indigenous farming systems for

millennia, in marked contrast to the high external input

monoculture of industrial farming, which breaks cycles and destroys space-time

differentiation, and is proving unsustainable in many respects. These findings

also explode the myth of constant ‘carrying capacity’ that have been used to

estimate how many people a piece of land, or the earth as a whole, can support.

In recent years, African farmers all along the edge of the Sahara, in Nigeria,

Niger, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Kenya, have been working miracles [10], pushing

back the desert, and turning the hills green, simply by integrating crops and

livestock to enhance nutrient recycling, by mix-cropping to increase system

diversity, and reintroducing traditional water-conservation methods to overcome

drought. Yields of many crops have tripled and doubled, keeping well ahead of

population increases. In fact, high local population densities, far from being a

liability, are actually essential for providing the necessary labour to work the

land properly, digging terraces and collecting

water in ponds for irrigation, and to control weeds, tend fields, feed the

animals and spread manure. In some areas, the population density or carrying

capacity went up fivefold, but the land is far more productive than ever before.

Organisms are the most energy-efficient ‘machines’ by far, a point lost on

policy-makers bent on increasing efficiency by getting rid of workers and

introducing other unsustainable ‘labour-saving’ measures. It is high time

policy-makers learn thermodynamics.

=================================================== This article can be found on

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=================================================== CONTACT DETAILS The

Institute of Science in Society, PO Box 32097, London NW1 OXR telephone: [44 20

8643

0681 [44 20 7383 3376] [44 20 7272 5636] General Enquiries sam

Website/Mailing List press-release ISIS Director

m.w.ho MATERIAL IN THIS EMAIL MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT

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TO http://www.i-sis.org.uk/

 

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

29 Jan 2004 15:02:52 -0000

Living Energies mini-series - Why Are Organisms So Complex?

press-release

 

The Institute of Science in Society

Science Society Sustainability

http://www.i-sis.org.uk

 

General Enquiries sam

Website/Mailing List press-release

ISIS Director m.w.ho

===================================================

 

Why Are Organisms So Complex?

**************************

 

A Lesson in Sustainability

*******************

 

 

Complexity is linked to productivity and sustainability. Dr. Mae-Wan Ho

explains.

 

References for this article are posted on ISIS members’ website.

www.i-sis.org.uk

The organism is like an ecosystem in many respects. It is highly complex. And

like the ecosystems, it is useful to look at its complexity is in terms of

organised, nested heterogeneity. The simplest kind of nested heterogeneity is a

fractal structure – with fractional dimensions in between the usual 1, 2 or 3 -

that is similar on many, if not every scale. Fractal geometry offers a ready

mathematical description of the simplest kind of organised complexity.

 

 

Some years ago, I showed how such a system is optimised for storing and

mobilising energy. In other words, it captures and stores useful coherent

energy, and mobilises it most efficiently and rapidly. The rigorous arguments

[1-3] involves formal thermodynamics, a discipline that deals with energy

transformation; but can be stated in a much more intuitive form [4], which I

shall reproduce here.

 

How organisms make a living

**********************

‘Sustainability’ has become a buzzword, but it is difficult to say exactly what

it means. Rather than indulge in getting a correct definition, I want to show

that there is a lot we can learn about sustainability by studying how organisms

sustain themselves, or keep alive.

 

 

The pre-requisite for keeping away from thermodynamic equilibrium – death by

another name – is the ability to capture energy and material from the

environment to develop, to grow and to recreate oneself from moment to moment

during one’s life time. The organism not only sustains itself dynamically, it

also reproduces future generations, which is part and parcel of sustainability.

An organism needs, first of all, physical barriers that separate inside from the

outside, though not completely. It also needs a dynamic structure that enables

it to store as much energy and material as possible, and to use the energy and

material most efficiently and rapidly, with the least amount of waste and

dissipation. Dissipation means the loss of useful energy from the system.

 

 

The organism has solved those problems over billions of years of evolution. It

has an obviously nested physical structure. Our body is enclosed and protected

by a rather tough skin, but we can exchange energy and material with the

outside, as we need to, we eat, breathe and excrete. Within the body, there are

organs, tissues and cells, each with a certain degree of autonomy and closure.

Within the cells there are numerous intracellular compartments that operate more

or less autonomously from the rest of the cell. And within each compartment,

there are molecular complexes doing different things, such as transcribing

genes, making proteins and extracting energy from our food. And all those

compartments are perfectly orchestrated.

 

The organism is indeed so perfectly coordinated that an actively mobile animal

typically appears liquid crystalline under the polarising microscope, due to the

coherent motions of all its molecules [1] (see Fig. 1). This perfect

coordination depends to a large extent on how energy is mobilised within the

organism.

 

 

It turns out that energy is mobilised in cycles, which can be thought of as

dynamic boxes, and they come in all sizes, from the very fast to the very slow,

from the global to the most local. Biologists have long puzzled over why

biological activities are predominantly rhythmic or cyclic, and much effort has

gone into identifying the centre of control, and more recently to identifying

master genes that control biological rhythms, all to no avail.

 

 

Diagram available on the ISIS members website

 

 

Figure 1. Inside the liquid crystalline brine-shrimp (200X).

 

Cycles make sense

**************

The organism is full of cycles possibly because cycles make thermodynamic sense.

Cycles involve perpetual returns to the same states, they give dynamic stability

as well as autonomy to the organism. Cycles also enable the activities to be

coupled, or linked together, so that those yielding energy can transfer the

energy directly to those requiring energy, and the direction can be reversed

when the need arises. These symmetrical, reciprocal relationships are most

important for sustaining the system. That’s how our metabolism and physiology is

organised: closing the cycle and linking up.

 

 

I have drawn a diagram to represent the nested cycles that span all space-time

scales, the totality of which make up the life cycle of the organism (Fig. 2). I

have also proposed that the life cycle has a self-similar fractal structure, so

if you magnify each cycle, you will see that it has smaller cycles within,

looking much the same as the whole.

 

 

The system effectively stores and mobilises energy over all space-times that are

coupled together, so energy can get from any space-time compartment to every

other, from the local to the global and vice versa. This complex dynamical

structure is the secret of how the system can sustain itself as a whole.

 

 

Diagram available on the ISIS members website

 

 

Figure 2. The life cycle of the organism consists of a self-similar fractal

structure of cycles turning within cycles

 

In the ideal, the system is always tending towards a dynamic balance, expressed

in another diagram (Fig. 3). The simple equation, S D S = 0, inside the cycle,

says there is an overall internal balance and compensation of energy so that the

system organisation is maintained, and the necessary dissipation (entropy, S,

made up of degraded, incoherent energy) is exported to the outside, S D S > 0.

But that’s the abstract ideal. In practice, dissipation within the system goes

to a minimum, not quite zero. In other words, the system does grow old and

eventually die, but only very slowly.

 

 

Diagram available on the ISIS members website

 

 

Figure 3. The organism consists of internally balanced cyclic processes coupled

to

energy flow.

 

Minimum dissipation means, in one sense, that energy (as well as material) going

into the system is used many times over before it is exported to the outside.

Intuitively, one can see that the more complex the dynamical structure, the more

cycles there are, the longer the energy remains in the system, and the least

amount is dissipated. In other words, increase in space-time differentiation

leads to increase in the energy that can be stored in the system.

 

Sustainable systems as organisms

*************************

Can we look at a sustainable ecosystem, and ultimately the sustainable global

ecosystem in the same way? I have suggested that we can some years ago [5].

 

 

Since then, evidence has been accumulating in ecology that productivity – rate

of production of biomass – generally, though not always goes up with

biodiversity (see “Energy, productivity & biodiversity”, this series), although

the precise causal relationship is still uncertain.

 

 

In my theory based on energy storage, productivity and the complexity of

space-time differentiation – a correlate of biodiversity - are completely

linked: the more complex the space-time differentiation, the greater the energy

stored, which is productivity by another name.

 

 

It also explains why greater energy input doesn’t necessarily increase

productivity: if the energy is supplied at a rate greater than the space-time

differentiation of the system can assimilate, then no further increase in

productivity can occur. An over-abundant supply of energy can indeed unbalance

the system, leading to a decrease in space-time differentiation, and hence a

fall in productivity (hence the unimodal relationship between diversity and

productivity, see “Energy, productivity & biodiversity”).

 

 

Evidence linking productivity and biodiversity has also emerged in agriculture.

David Tilman and his colleagues in the University of Minneapolis in the United

States have recently produced the best experimental evidence that biodiverse

fields are more productive [6-7], although the precise explanation is still

hotly debated [8]. Other ecologists are also rediscovering how it is the

symbiotic reciprocal relationships, rather than competition, which sustain the

ecosystem as a whole [9]. It is a case of closing circles and joining up to

build a more complex space-time differentiation in the ecosystem.

 

 

Sustainable farming across the world relies on cultivating a diversity of crops

and livestock to maximise internal input, which effectively closes up cycles and

maximises the nested, space-time structure of the system. This wisdom has

informed traditional indigenous farming systems for millennia, in marked

contrast to the high external input monoculture of industrial farming, which

breaks cycles and destroys space-time differentiation, and is proving

unsustainable in many respects.

 

 

These findings also explode the myth of constant ‘carrying capacity’ that have

been used to estimate how many people a piece of land, or the earth as a whole,

can support.

 

 

In recent years, African farmers all along the edge of the Sahara, in Nigeria,

Niger, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Kenya, have been working miracles [10], pushing

back the desert, and turning the hills green, simply by integrating crops and

livestock to enhance nutrient recycling, by mix-cropping to increase system

diversity, and reintroducing traditional water-conservation methods to overcome

drought. Yields of many crops have tripled and doubled, keeping well ahead of

population increases.

 

 

In fact, high local population densities, far from being a liability, are

actually essential for providing the necessary labour to work the land properly,

digging terraces and collecting water in ponds for irrigation, and to control

weeds, tend fields, feed the animals and spread manure. In some areas, the

population density or carrying capacity went up fivefold, but the land is far

more productive than ever before.

 

 

Organisms are the most energy-efficient ‘machines’ by far, a point lost on

policy-makers bent on increasing efficiency by getting rid of workers and

introducing other unsustainable ‘labour-saving’ measures. It is high time

policy-makers learn thermodynamics.

 

 

 

 

 

===================================================

This article can be found on the I-SIS website at http://www.i-sis.org.uk/

If you would prefer to receive future mailings as HTML please let us know.

If you would like to be removed from our mailing list - please reply

to press-release with the word in the subject field

If you would like to be added to our mailing list - please send a blank

email

to press-release with the word in the subject field

===================================================

CONTACT DETAILS

The Institute of Science in Society, PO Box 32097, London NW1 OXR

telephone: [44 20 8643 0681] [44 20 7383 3376] [44 20 7272 5636]

 

General Enquiries sam

Website/Mailing List press-release

ISIS Director m.w.ho

 

MATERIAL IN THIS EMAIL MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT PERMISSION, ON

CONDITION THAT IT IS ACCREDITED ACCORDINGLY AND CONTAINS A LINK TO

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/

 

 

 

 

 

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