Figure 2.

The cell as a dynamical system. Functional associations between molecular components in the cell give rise to a complex intracellular regulatory network. This network encodes the architecture of a complex dynamical system that may admit numerous attractors, each of which may be identified with a distinct cell “fate”. The basins of attraction of the attractors partition the state space into discrete pieces. The cell's intracelluar molecular dynamics may admit many different kinds of attractor including various different kinds of fixed‐point such as (Upper‐Left) stable nodes and (Right) stable spirals, as well as (Lower‐Left) limit cycles, and (Lower‐Centre) more exotic structures such as limit tori (shown) or even strange attractors