BCSSS

International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics

2nd Edition, as published by Charles François 2004 Presented by the Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science Vienna for public access.

About

The International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics was first edited and published by the system scientist Charles François in 1997. The online version that is provided here was based on the 2nd edition in 2004. It was uploaded and gifted to the center by ASC president Michael Lissack in 2019; the BCSSS purchased the rights for the re-publication of this volume in 200?. In 2018, the original editor expressed his wish to pass on the stewardship over the maintenance and further development of the encyclopedia to the Bertalanffy Center. In the future, the BCSSS seeks to further develop the encyclopedia by open collaboration within the systems sciences. Until the center has found and been able to implement an adequate technical solution for this, the static website is made accessible for the benefit of public scholarship and education.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

CHEMOTAXIS 5)

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"A phenomenon whereby a chemical released in the system attracts or repels a population of cells or organisms" (I. PRIGOGINE, P.M. ALLEN and R. HERMAN, 1978, p.40).

Chemotaxis is a socialization factor, in the same class as pheromones in social insects. It induces a kind of spatial anisotropy, as for example in the amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, whose aggregation is controlled by the level of adenosine triphosphate (AMP) secreted by the cells. It is also operating in the construction of the nervous system, as shown by the recent discovery of so-called netrin proteins, which guide the growth of axons, by a team under the lead of M. TESSIER-LAVIGNE (Scientific American, Jan. 1995). The establishment of this type of spatial gradient is quite a general phenomenon. It corresponds probably to some not yet discovered similar one in human crowds showing collective nonrational behavior, yet to be explained.

Categories

  • 1) General information
  • 2) Methodology or model
  • 3) Epistemology, ontology and semantics
  • 4) Human sciences
  • 5) Discipline oriented

Publisher

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science(2020).

To cite this page, please use the following information:

Bertalanffy Center for the Study of Systems Science (2020). Title of the entry. In Charles François (Ed.), International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics (2). Retrieved from www.systemspedia.org/[full/url]

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