Biology doesn't waste energy: that's really smart

Abstract

Biology presents us with answers to design problems that we suspect would be very useful if only we could implement them successfully. We use the Russian theory of problem solving -TRIZ -in a novel way to provide a system for analysis and technology transfer. The analysis shows that whereas technology uses energy as the main means of solving technical problems, biology uses information and structure. Biology is also strongly hierarchical. The suggestion is that smart technology in hierarchical structures can help us to design much more efficient technology. TRIZ also suggests that biological design is autonomous and can be defined by the prefix "self-" with any function. This autonomy extends to the control system, so that the sensor is commonly also the actuator, resulting in simpler systems and greater reliability.

Systems Biology as a Research Program for Intelligent Design

“…The systems biology revolution assumes that biological systems both use and store information in multiple contexts. Vincent, Bogatyreva, and Bogatyrev say [38], "Whereas technology uses energy as the main means of solving technical problems, biology uses information and structure." Bill Bialek says [39], "The generation of physicists who turned to the phenomena of life in the 1930s realized that to understand these phenomena one would need to track not just the flow of energy (as in inanimate systems) but also the flow of information."…”

“…All of these engineering paradigms applied to biology have the characteristics of "reverse engineering," a major goal in systems biology, as evidenced by the frequent explicit use of this term [38,58,[61][62][63][64][65]. 2 Reverse engineering is the process, often done in industry, of taking a system designed by someone else and trying to figure out how it works.…”

“…[Emphasis added. ] Biological systems are called "smart," [38] "sophisticated," [71] and "clever" [72] but all this cleverness is assumed to arise from random causes and natural selection.…”

Cellular self-organizing systems: A field-based behavior regulation approach

“…Common to all biological systems, cellular structure is indispensable for these systems to grow into complex configurations (Vincent et al, 2006; Audesirk et al, 2007). Unlike dynamical systems where no shared information is present from an object's point of view, each cell in a biological system possesses a “description,” called DNA, of the whole system and is able to interpret this locally shared information to generate local actions (i.e., producing adequate proteins).…”