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Emergent Properties of Biological Systems

When individual components in an environment come together to create distinct, collective and interactive properties and functions, the results are called emergent properties. These emergent properties do not and cannot manifest themselves unless an organism is looked at in its entirety. As such, emergent properties are at the intrinsic core of the entire science of systems biology.

A further elaboration of emergent properties deduces that the systems they form are called irreducible, since they cannot be fully comprehended when broken down into smaller segments, much in the way that a person would be unable to capture the essence of a movie by watching 3 of its scenes. At the same time, the systems that are produced through emergence are also considered complex, in that they are unpredictable even to people who are experts in the nature of the individual components.

One reason for the development of emergent properties is that an increase in the number of interacting simple components will naturally bring about an exponentially greater probability of possible reactions. However, it should not be implied that volume inexorably leads to emergent behavior, since many interactions are negligible.

Web Resources On Emergent Properties of Biological Systems

Institute for Systems Biology
Wikipedia: Systems Biology

Book Resources On Emergent Properties of Biological Systems

Systems Biology in Practice: Concepts, Implementation and Application by Edda Klipp, et al
Foundations of Systems Biology by Hiroaki Kitano

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