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. 2014 May 30;592(Pt 11):2261–2265. doi: 10.1113/jphysiol.2014.271775

Figure 2. Cells to organisms.

Figure 2

Information bearing cells interact dissipatively in the attractor (minimum free energy state of interacting cells) to provide the form and function (entropy in the form of information and bound energy) of the organism. Organisms, subject to natural selection for their ability to transduct energy from their ecosystem, grow and reproduce utilising the available energy as efficiently as possible according to the second law. Organisms are the emergent properties of interacting cells. (The image of the torus is reproduced by kind permission of BioResilience.com/Galen Guerrero-Murphy.)