(aka, what I spend time thinking about when there are more important, even urgent, matters to attend to)
Systems Biology and Emergent Properties
During the course of this semester, I’ve had the pleasure of learning about recent advances made in the field of Biological Engineering. Many efforts are being made to link the fields of traditional science and engineering, with the hope that innovation and scientific discovery will be found where they meet. One promising junction is systems biology, or the study of how the order of living biological systems (from the macroscale down to the nanoscale) determines an organism’s function. Biological systems are all around and in us: the cells in our bodies are organized to function together as a heart, or a lung, and these organs in turn function together to allow us to breathe and use oxygen; individuals within a species together make up a population, that in turn functions as an entity within an ecological niche, which in turn builds an ecosystem…the levels of organization go as high as our solar system, and beyond.
The fascinating discovery seen within these layers of life is how, as one progresses up through the levels of organization from the least to the most complex systems, properties begin to emerge that aren’t seen at lower levels. This is the idea of emergent properties.
For example, when scientists observe nerve cells under the microscope, there are many parts of the cell one can distinguish. Each cell as an individual , however, remains fairly uninteresting. But, if one gathers together many cells and forms a specific tissue, say brain tissue, suddenly those uninteresting cells, collectively, exhibit new behavior. As a result of higher organization humans can experience thoughts, memories and emotions. Systems biologists ask, what biologcal mechanisms are responsible for emergent properties?
As one whose higher education has its foundations in biology and chemistry, and who now has transitioned into engineering and space systems, I’ve become really interested in learning about how this field can improve space science and engineering. A researcher by the name of Dr. Angela Belcher at MIT has pioneered some very interesting studies into the use of biological components (viruses, proteins), which already exist in every living thing, for the manufacturing of materials essential to us. For example, using cells that are already “programmed” (via their DNA instructions) to make bone tissue to instead make silicon composites for use in solar cells. The mechanism for manufacturing is already there, but by introducing the raw materials necessary to make other composites the cells become factories of a different economy, if you will.
The reasons I find this research so novel are: 1) as a global community our energy needs require new, innovative solutions; 2) naturally occurring systems are by design clean, efficient and self-sustaining, and thereby impose minimal environmental impact (they have to be to have survived these many billions of years); 3) by mimicking the mechanisms that already occur in nature we are following a well-established and time-tested model. There are many factors to consider here, that is for sure, but I think there really is something to all of this.
Even more interesting is the scale at which most biological systems fundamentally operate: nano. This means that as the “nano-age” continues to unfold even more opportunities for scientific discovery will emerge.
