In biological evolution, this Biological Attraction manifests itself, inter alia, as co-evolution, convergent evolution, symbiogenesis, lateral gene transfer and manipulation at distance (such as attraction of pollinators by flowering plants). Depending on the context, the biological attraction may depend on the physical distance between interacting organisms, on the shapes, intensities and patterns of the created fields, on the corresponding features of the fields which are affected and, finally, on the sensitivities of the organisms present within that field. Sensitivity to this biological attraction seems to increase in biological systems under stress. Living systems are, therefore, acting on other living organisms, which are sensitive to these features. By analogy with the aforementioned gravitation law, biological attraction is based on the evidence that each living organism creates a sphere (or field) of influence around itself i.e., it is capable of active modification of some of the salient features of the environment (niche) in which it lives. It is proposed that this biological attractive force is intrinsic to living organisms and manifests itself through the propensity of any living organism to act, without necessarily any direct contact, on other living organisms. Attraction within the biological sphere operates irrespective of physical mass. The biological ‘drive’ of attraction is inherent to living and evolving systems and is the results of their inherent biological activities. Biological activities, processes, or patterns are all deemed to be mutually attractive, and often may follow partial or full fusion of the attracted structures and/or systems. Biological Attraction acts within and between biological systems. Three specific organizational levels of living matter, namely the molecular, cellular, and supracellular levels, have been considered in order to analyse and illustrate the interpretative as well as the predictive roles of each of these three explanatory principles.Īnother new principle, that of ‘Biological Attraction’, is analogous to Newton’s Law of Gravitation in which objects with physical mass attract one another. This field acts as a sphere of influence that actively attracts similar fields of other biological systems, thereby modifying salient features of the interacting organisms. By analogy with the gravitation law in physics, biological attraction is based on the evidence that each living organism creates an attractive field around itself. The Biological Attraction principle states that there is an inherent drive for association and merging of compatible elements at all levels of biological complexity. The term Mosaic indicates how, from the same set of elements assembled according to different patterns, it is possible to arrive at completely different constructions: hence, each system becomes endowed with different emergent properties. Self-Similarity Logic indicates the self-consistency by which elements of a living system interact, irrespective of the spatiotemporal level under consideration. This investigation will employ three conceptual tools, namely the Mosaic, Self-Similarity Logic, and the Biological Attraction principles. The aim of the present paper is to indicate a possible course of this ‘passage through time, and suggest how today’s complexity has been reached by living organisms. From a temporal point of view, this type of organization is the result of a history comprised of a set of time backcloths which have accompanied the passage of living matter from its origins up to the present day. From a structural standpoint, living organisms are organized like a nest of Russian matryoshka dolls, in which structures are buried within one another.
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