By Wilfred D. Stein and Francisco J. Varela

Thinking About Biology: An Introductory Essay
Wilfred D. Stein and Francisco J. Varela

Section I. The Emergence of Life

Defining the Transition to Life: Self-Replicating Bounded Structures and Chemical Autopoiesis
Pier Luigi Luisi

The Organism as a Dynamical System
Peter T. Saunders

Designing Bacteria
Jay E. Mittenthal, Bertrand Clarke, and Mark Levinthal

Structural Patterns in Macromolecules
G. Cocho, F. Lara-Ochoa, M. A. Jimenez-Montano, and J. L. Ruis

Section II. Development and the Individual: Processes of Identity

Development as a Robust Natural Process
Brian Goodwin

Generation of Morphological Patterns: Mechanical Ways to Create Regular Structures in Embryonic Development
L. V. Beloussov

Gastrulation and the Evolution of Development
Lewis Wolpert

Biological Organization, Coherence, and Light Emission from Living Organisms
Mae-Wan Ho and Fritz-Albert Popp

What is the Immune Network For?
Francisco J. Varela, Antonio Coutinho, and John Stewart

Randomness and Pattern Scale in the Immune Network: A Cellular Automata Approach
Rob J. de Boer, Jan D. van der Laan, and Pauline Hogeweg

Section III. Species and Societies: Communication Among Multiple Agents

Self-Organized Criticality and Gaia
Per Bak

Requirements for Evolvability in Complex Systems: Orderly Dynamics and Frozen Components
Stuart A. Kauffman

Modeling the Behavior of Ant Colonies as an Emergent Property of a System of Ant-Ant Interactions
L. E. H. Trainor

Index