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MOSAIC MONSTERS BOLTED TOGETHER. "Animals are symbiotic complexes of many species living together." https://lnkd.in/ddVyNR5 View in LinkedIn

FRAGMENT FROM NATURE meditates for three weekends on the sea change in thinking that allows for all creatures to be mosaic hybrids, holobionts. The issue of what is an individual is central to this question. This will be followed by a fairly lengthy consideration of symbiotic organisms that are vertically inherited as if part of the host body. The two contemplations together represent a veritable paradigm shift in life science thinking since 1970. View in LinkedIn

METRIC SCALE CONNECTIONS. "If emergence happens over disparate size scales, then the reason is usually a causal relation across different scales." https://lnkd.in/dN5A7Kw https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence#CITEREFAnderson1972 View in LinkedIn

NO ANATOMIC INDIVIDUALITY. "In addition to the mitochondrial vestiges of ancient symbiosis, thousands of bacterial “species” (themselves genetic composites) live in intimate association with our own eukaryotic cells. Estimates that 90% of the cells that comprise our bodies are bacterial belie any simple anatomical understanding of individual identity." View in LinkedIn

SUPERSTRUCTURE. "An emergent behavior or emergent property can appear when a number of simple entities (agents) operate in an environment, forming more complex behaviors as a collective." https://lnkd.in/dN5A7Kw https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence#CITEREFAnderson1972 View in LinkedIn

BOVINE RETHINK. "The entity we call a cow is an organism whose complex ecosystem of gut symbionts—a diverse community of cellulose-digesting bacteria, ciliated protists, and anaerobic fungi—informs its specialized anatomy, defines its plant-digesting physiology, regulates its behaviors, and ultimately determines its evolution." View in LinkedIn

"NATURAL DISTRIBUTED SYSTEMS are adaptive, scalable and fault-tolerant. Emergence science describes how higher-level self-regulatory behaviour arises in natural systems from many participants following simple rule-sets. Emergence advocates simple communication models, autonomy and independence, enhancing robustness and self-stabilization." https://lnkd.in/dfVXcaw View in LinkedIn

CORAL SYMBIONTS. "The algal symbiont, Symbiodinium, provides up to 60% of the nutrients needed by its host coral (the term “host” is used here in the classical sense to denote the larger, eukaryotic, multicellular organism in which the “symbiont” resides). When this symbiosis is broken by a prolonged increase in sea-surface temperatures, corals “bleach.” They lose their algal symbionts and die." View in LinkedIn

EXPONENTIAL RULE. "One reason why emergent behaviour is hard to predict is that the number of interactions between components of a system increases exponentially with the number of components, thus potentially allowing for many new and subtle types of behaviour to emerge." https://lnkd.in/dN5A7Kw View in LinkedIn

ANATOMIC MOSAICISM. "Anatomically, the individual animal is regarded as a structured whole. Yet, data from PCR show that the cells and bodies of animals are shared with numerous “species” of bacteria and other microbes. In some sponges, nearly 40% of the volume of the organism is comprised of bacteria, which contribute significantly to host metabolism." View in LinkedIn