Comments on: The Parts of Life http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/01/30/the-parts-of-life/ A science salon hosted by National Geographic Magazine Tue, 18 Jun 2013 22:57:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.2-alpha By: Nigel Anthony Reading RIBA http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/01/30/the-parts-of-life/#comment-41869 Nigel Anthony Reading RIBA Mon, 04 Mar 2013 08:00:02 +0000 http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/?p=151511#comment-41869 Modularity, the Integrated Information Theory of Giulio Tononi along with the thermodynamics-led behaviours of the Constructal law, (with their Asynsis principle geometric signatures linking optimisation and laws of beauty in the arts and architecture), are shaping up to be a new paradigm for sustainability in complex systems.
One of the key lessons of this paradigm-shifting new ToE are that for our civilisation to preserve nature, it must evolve to better emulate her.
http://asynsis.wordpress.com
http://constructal.org

]]> By: Cody Reisdorf http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/01/30/the-parts-of-life/#comment-39423 Cody Reisdorf Wed, 30 Jan 2013 23:50:20 +0000 http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/?p=151511#comment-39423 I don’t find the modularity all that surprising, after all, all matter is module, and different combinations of building blocks result in different functionality.

But it’s a great result, and a brilliant approach. It’s interesting that including network complexity in the fitness measure actually improves the process, that could benefit genetic programming in general since it promotes less resource-intensive programs.

You mention that the concept of modularity spans a great scale: from proteins to organs; I might even argue that we see the same general phenomena between organisms in social species, and in humans all the way from interpersonal relationships to international ones.

It has fascinated me for quite some time to think about how the forces of competition and cooperation show up on all scales from single-celled organisms all the way up to our global society.

Also I think you forgot to close an italic tag when you updated the post.

]]> By: martin weiss http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/01/30/the-parts-of-life/#comment-39420 martin weiss Wed, 30 Jan 2013 22:58:18 +0000 http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/?p=151511#comment-39420 Carl

Hope you move works out well for you. However, how will we be able to gain access to all your former posts?

Martin

]]> By: John Kubie http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/01/30/the-parts-of-life/#comment-39419 John Kubie Wed, 30 Jan 2013 21:33:49 +0000 http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/?p=151511#comment-39419 A very interesting area. The general concept of “small world networks” is fascinating. A couple of topics not covered in your review.
1. wiring costs. In the CNS it takes a lot of energy and space to maintain axons. Keeping wiring (axon) volume minimized is of value.
2. boundaries. In certains systems its useful to separate one domain from another. The blood-brain-barrier is an example.
3. topological organization. In the brain, many processing regions use topography to aid in computation. Connectivity strength is roughly proportional to brain distance, laid out (typically) in 2D. Permits computations such as inhibitory surround. This works for low-dimensional systems.
4. In the CNS there are non-modular cortices, such as the hippocampus (my guess). These are smaller and phylogentically older than neocortical domains.

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