At the beginning an empty blackboard was.................
Assuming a top-down approach to the logic of living organisms we can start defining the functions characterizing a single (animal)organism.
They can be summarized as follows:
All known organisms have to perform actions intended to survive and/or to reproduce; if we see them they are able to do that in the current environment.
Universality : this rule apply at any level: population, whole body, tissue, cell, virus.
Actions may be summarized as:
- reproducing
- doing something else
The choice between reproduction and doing something else is a typical bifurcation and requires a choice driven by the local conditions. Identification of factors involved in this choice would allow a better comprehension of events like fetal and cancer growth, tissues differentiation etc.
Universality : the choice of reproduce itself requires a minimal amount of nutrients (corresponding to the molecules of the new cell + energy to build them) but excess nutrients (richness) can inhibit it. To duplicate increases the opportunity to find out nutrients (if the individuals spread) Open question: find out the local conditions driving this behavior
