Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
a
b
Leptons
Equilibrons
Bosons
Cytons
Hadrons
Dissipatons
The Atom
The Cell
Fig. 10.3 Two types of particles constituting the atom and the cell. Hadrons are heavy particles
such as protons and neutrons, and leptons are light particles including electrons and muons
(Han 1999).
Cytons
, first invoked in (Ji 1991) are the hypothetical physical entity operating inside
the cell and analogous to bosons in physics that mediate the interactions between equilibrons
and dissipatons
Table 10.3 The atom and the living cell as two different types of networks consisting of two
different types of nodes and edges
Atom
Cell
1. Node type 1
Hadrons
Equilibrons
2. Edge type 1
Strong force (mediated by gluons) Covalent bonds (mediated by
electrons)
3. Node type 2
Leptons
Dissipatons
4. Edge type 2
Electromagnetic force (mediated
by photons)
Noncovalent bonds
5.
Interaction
mechanisms
Exchange of bosons (e.g., photons,
gluons)
Exchange of
cytons
(e.g.,
conformons, IDSs)
6. Common
principle
Franck-Condon principle
Generalized Franck-Condon
principle
10
10
10
5
7. Diameter, m
10
15
8. Relative volume
1
10
15
9. Relative
complexity
a
1
10. Thermodynamic
systems
Closed
Open
11. Networks Passive Active (and renormalizable)
a
It is assumed that the complexity of a physical system as measured by its algorithmic information
bosons (e.g., photons; see Glossary for definitions of these terms), so the cell can be
thought of as composed of two types of particles, equilibrium and dissipative
structures that interact through the mediation of
cytons
, the cellular analog of
bosons (Ji 1991, pp. 94-96) (see Rows 1, 3 and 5 in Table
10.3
).
