Back to the Moon with Nuclear Rockets

matter, while those that receive it increase their potential up tovalues sufficient for introduction into the new life cycle.The basic vital process also provides for prolongation of thelifespan of an individual living system after it has reached its"limit of mass," and its potential has decreased to a criticalvalue. Regular switching on of the basic vital process increasesthe potential of the individual living system at the expense ofits getting rid of some part of its mass that has become ballast.It is interesting to speculate that the thoroughly studied processof "apoptosis"—the programmed cell death in a cellular complex—isa manifestation of such a process.Homeostasis, 36 the physiological state in which the organismkeeps its physiological parameters around certain stationaryvalues, is probably an oscillation between intermittent metabolism,when the system performs internal and externalwork, and the basic vital process. Thus, during homeostasis,the vector of the life process oscillates between the accumulationof free energy and its expenditure, and between potentialincrease and decrease. However, sooner or later, the generalstock of free (structural) energy of an individual system beginsto decrease. When the vector of the life process turns this way,it means that a living system moves towards equilibrium withits environment. At this stage, Bauer's principles are increasinglyshadowed with ordinary regularities of classical, in particular,statistical physics and chemistry. Certainly, manifestationsof the purposefulness of the life process, and the inherentactivity of a living system become less and less obvious, andare expressed as traces of previous development as a livingsystem dies. It happens thus that the basic conclusions of modernbiology are devised primarily from investigation of livingsystems, residing at best, at the stage of homeostasis and, atworst, at the final stages of the life cycle. Probably this is thereason for a misunderstanding of Bauer's principles of theoreticalbiology by the majority of biologists.Courtesy of Jeffrey Carmichael, University of North DakotaSection of an onion root showing a cell in metaphase (atarrow). Chromosomes are stained dark for visibility.Onion root section with cell shown in anaphase (at arrow).Gurwitsch's Theory of Cellular and Biological FieldsIf we consider the development of a living system from thepoint of view of energy transformation, it represents the growthof stocks of free (structural) energy of the system. If we look atthe "substantial" side of development, it looks like quantitativegrowth and qualitative transformation of "biomass" chargedwith structural energy, like the continuous emergence of newstructures. During the development of any living system, specializedstructures and organs arise in the space of the organism,giving it a specific form. The higher the structural organizationof a living system, the higher the level of labor divisionamong its parts, the more effectively it uses free energy, andthe more sensitive it is to stimuli coming from its environment.What are the specific differences between the morphogenesisof living systems that takes place during its development, andthe shaping that takes place during the growth of lifeless structures,for example, crystals?Morphogenesis (development of shape) occurring in theembryo is primarily the result of individual cell movementsand the change of their shape during differentiation, ratherthan the result of a multiplication of cells. The latter process ismostly responsible for the supply of new "building blocks" forthe overall design. At the end of the 1 9th century, the prominentGerman embryologist Hans Driesch (1867-1941) provedon the basis of substantial experiments that all cellular reorganizationstaking place during embryogenesis are determinedprimarily by particular cells' location in the space of a developingembryo taken as a whole, rather than by specific propertiesof these particular cells. He formulated one of the majorlaws of embryology: "The fate of a part of an embryo is thefunction of its location in the whole." It followed from this lawthat the properties of an integrated system are not just thecombination or the sum of the properties of its parts. Driesch,however, limited further investigation of the nature of this lawby ascertaining that an integral developing system possessesthe special property which he named "Entelechia"—aspirationto development. 37 Such a formulation looks like a tautology,and appears fruitless for further scientific research. Driesch'stheoretical concepts were mostly rejected by thescientific community.A.G. Gurwitsch was one of a few who recognized Driesch'slaw as an extremely fruitful principle, helping to approach anunderstanding of morphogenesis and of other major vital manifestationsfrom a uniform position. If the behavior of a38, 39given cell in an embryo depends upon its location in thewhole, then one may consider the whole complex of cellsforming an embryo as a certain geometrical space. Specific coordinatevalues relative to certain chosen axes may be ascribedto different points inside it. One and the same factor af-28 Summer 1999 21st CENTURY