Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: We regard the basic unit of the organism, the cell, as a complex dissipative natural process functioning under the second law of thermodynamics and the principle of least action. Organisms are conglomerates of information bearing cells that optimise the efficiency of energy (nutrient) extraction from its ecosystem. Dissipative processes, such as peptide folding and protein interaction, yield phenotypic information from which form and function emerge from cell to cell interactions within the organism. Organisms, in Darwin's 'proportional numbers', in turn interact to minimise the free energy of their ecosystems. Genetic variation plays no role in this holistic conceptualisation of the life process.
Source: The Journal of Physiology
Authors: Keith Baverstock, Mauno Rönkkö
Institution: University of Eastern Finland
Language: English
Subfield: History and Philosophy of Science
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2114557547