Autopoiesis the logic of cellular life

In fact, the life of a cell is the starting point for the development of the ideas of autopoiesis (from the Greek auto, or self, and poiesis, or producing) developed by Maturana and Varela (Varela et ah, 1974 Maturana and Varela, 1980 Maturana and Varela, 1998). The aim of this chapter is to review the notion of autopoiesis and to present it in the context of present-day research in the life sciences. This will imply some addition to, and modification of, the original theory and also of a recent review of mine on which the first part of this outline is based (Luisi, 2003b). 

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