Nature favors simplicity and symmetry in biological forms

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25250/thescbr.brk708

Keywords:

symmetry, biology, evolution, information theory

Abstract

Why do symmetric and regular shapes abound in biology? Using arguments based on algorithmic information theory, we explain why a preference for simple shapes often occurs in biological systems. Our theory is validated via predicting the shape frequencies for naturally occurring protein assemblies, non-coding RNAs, self-assembled tile shapes, and a cell cycle mathematical model.

 

Author Biography

Kamaludin Dingle, Gulf University for Science and Technology and The California Institute of Technology (Caltech)

Professor

Original article reference

Johnston, I. G., Dingle, K., Greenbury, S. F., Camargo, C. Q., Doye, J. P. K., Ahnert, S. E., & Louis, A. A. (2022). Symmetry and simplicity spontaneously emerge from the algorithmic nature of evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(11). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2113883119

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Published

2023-05-17

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 2 (2023): TheScienceBreaker

Section

Evolution & Behaviour

License

Some rights reserved 2023 Kamaludin Dingle

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.