title: Finding simplicity in complexity: general principles of biological and nonbiological organization.
abstract: What differentiates the living from the nonliving? What is life? These are perennial questions that have occupied minds since the beginning of cultures. The search for a clear demarcation between animate and inanimate is a reflection of the human tendency to create borders, not only physical but also conceptual. It is obvious that what we call a living creature, either bacteria or organism, has distinct properties from those of the normally called nonliving. However, searching beyond dichotomies and from a global, more abstract, perspective on natural laws, a clear partition of matter into animate and inanimate becomes fuzzy. Based on concepts from a variety of fields of research, the emerging notion is that common principles of biological and nonbiological organization indicate that natural phenomena arise and evolve from a central theme captured by the process of information exchange. Thus, a relatively simple universal logic that rules the evolution of natural phenomena can be unveiled from the apparent complexity of the natural world.
authors: Brain and Behavior Center, Neuroscience and Mental Health Program, Division of Neurology, Hospital for Sick Children, Department of Pediatrics and Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. jose-luis.perez-velazquez@sickkids.ca
authors: Jose L
authors: JL
authors: Perez Velazquez