It claims at least some volatility is a fundamental biological necessity, despite such instability leading to the loss of resources. That's because there are other things to gain.
"Selectively advantageous instability increases the complexity of the system and this increased complexity has potential benefits", Tower writes. These benefits include the power to change and therefore adapt, which occurs across all biological levels from the molecular to population.
"Even the simplest cells contain proteases and nucleuses and regularly degrade and replace their proteins and RNAs, indicating that selectively advantageous instability is essential for life", Tower says.
The requirement of instability inevitably leads to a loss of energy and resources and the accumulation of genetic mutations that may be either harmful or benign. This is how we end up with biological aging, Tower speculates.
Yet without instability and its downsides, life wouldn't be able to adapt and flourish through changing time and space.
So we're all caught in a contradictory tug of war between a need for stability and instability, making compromises either way.
"Science has been fascinated lately with concepts such as chaos theory, criticality, Turing patterns and cellular consciousness", says Tower.
"Research in the field suggests that selectively advantageous instability plays an important role in producing each of these phenomena".
Note. This research was published in Frontiers in Aging.
.......concluded.
Tailpiece.
Got up at 10' to 6, the chores and was ready by a half past 9.
A quiet Sunday.
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