Biology Reference
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Fig. 5.3 Just as the shape of snowflakes reflect their trajectories through the atmosphere, so the
different RNA trajectories measured from yeast cells are postulated to reflect the different
microenvironmental conditions (see Fig.
12.28
) under which RNA molecules are synthesized in
the nucleus and degraded in the cytosol. Snowflakes are
equilibrium structures
or
equilibrons
whose sixfold symmetry are determined by the geometry of the water molecule, while RNA
trajectories are
dissipative structures
or
dissipatons
(Sect.
3.1
)
whose shapes reflect the fact that
cells are themselves
dissipative structures
maintaining their dynamic internal structures (including
RNA trajectories) by continuously dissipating free energy. For the experimental details concerning
the measurement of the RNA trajectories shown above, see Sect.
12.2
(Figure
5.3
was drawn by
one of my undergraduate students, Ronak Shah, in April, 2009)
Variation Principle (MVP)” or the “Maximum Complexity Principle (MCP),”
which states that:
The variety of the internal states of living systems increases with evolutionary time.
(5.11)
or
The complexity of the internal states of living systems increase with evolutionary time.
(5.12)
Statement (5.12) resembles that of the Second Law (“The entropy of an isolated
system increases with time.”), which may lead conflating MVP with the Second
Law unless care is taken. MVP cannot be derived from the Second Law, because
MVP embodies the evolutionary trajectories (or contingencies) of living systems
(i.e., slowly changing environmental variations encountered by rapidly changing
