"A mosaic consists of thousands of little stones. Some are blue, some are green, some are yellow, some are gold. When we bring our faces close to the mosaic, we can admire the beauty of each stone. But as we step back from it, we can see that all these little stones reveal to us a beautiful picture, telling a story none of these stones can tell by itself." -- Henri Nouwen
A system is a group of interacting parts that function as a whole. The configuration of a system’s parts can be physical, logical or statistical. A system can show unexpected features and behavior that cannot be reduced to a property of the individual parts.
Everything that exists lives in a system of some sort. Every object is somehow connected to and impacted by those things that surround it. Therefore, understanding the systematic effects of its surroundings and the effects of its interacting component parts is crucial to understanding a natural pattern. Indeed, a pattern in nature is an emergent property -- a result of the systematic interaction of its component parts as well as the impact from its environment. The pattern is a structure that is greater than the sum of its parts.
The study of systems and the application of systems theory can be useful in achieving some understanding of patterns in nature. The word "systematic" refers to the interrelationships or dependencies that exist in a group of similar or dissimilar objects under study. Systems science is a framework by which one can analyze and/or describe any group of objects that work in concert to produce some result.
This section offers some systems concepts that are useful in understanding patterns in nature. These concepts are feedback, emergent behavior, complexity, and chaos. They form the basis for expanded discussions of networks.
Until recently, western science was stuck on the idea that one could identify a single factor that caused something to function. This process, called "reductionism", suggested that the path to complete understanding came from studying how individual components worked. Reductionism was particularly prevalent in the field of molecular biology after Watson and Crick identified the structure of DNA. Scientists strived to discover one-to-one relationships between particular genes and particular behaviors or physical characteristics in an organism. It was like completely disassembling an automobile engine, laying the parts on the garage floor, then discerning the behavior of a running engine from the engine's parts while they laid on the floor.
The advent of computers that could simulate processes, coupled with new ideas in systems engineering and systems biology slowly brought on new realizations that characteristics and behaviors of earthly objects are connected. While reductionism is important, the systematic or connected point of view is equally important if a full understanding of nature is to be achieved.
To understand a system, it is necessary to study not only parts and processes in isolation, but to study the systematic organization and order that unifies the parts. The study of the system’s organization is crucial because the behavior of the parts is different in isolation than when acting as an integrated whole.
It has only been in recent times that Western science has embraced the idea of that the form and function of a system is much greater than the sum of its parts. With emphasis from distinguished scientists like E. O. Wilson and Denis Noble, a more systematic view of nature's patterns has emerged. And with this emphasis, we see that many of nature's patterns are created (manifested) because of structural and functional interrelationships with their component parts and their environment.
A popular example of this systematic view is the cooperation of a bee colony and how it can be viewed as a living "super-organism". The colony and its hive structure is a example of a natural pattern that is created through the individual behavior of smaller parts (the bees). This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as "emergent behavior".
Kevin Kelly, in his book, "Out Of Control" describes the "Hive Mind" as "The organization of a tiny honeybee yields a pattern for its tinier one-tenth of a gram of wing cells, tissue, and chitin. The organism of a hive yields integration for its community of worker bees, drones, pollen and brood. The whole 50-pound hive organ emerges with its own identity from the tiny bee parts. The hive possesses much that none of its parts possesses. One speck of a honeybee brain operates with a memory of six days; the hive as a whole operates with a memory of three months, twice as long as the average bee lives. "
The study of living systems is now called "Systems Biology".
It is a groundbreaking scientific approach that seeks to understand how all the individual components of a biological system interact in time and space to determine the functioning of the system. You can hear and see the father of systems biology , Denis Noble, describe this new paradigm by clicking on the thumbnail at the left.
Learn more about systems by reading about feedback, emergent behavior, complex systems, and chaos.
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