Complexity and emergence

It was discovered recently that a polymer could demonstrate emergent phenomena when catenated under thermodynamic control. The previously developed [205] 

Though there are plenty of gray areas on the subject of complexity and emergence, spectacular examples in the field of MIMs are still rare, but the chemistry of complexity is sure to become a growing, exciting, and pleasing new direction that chemists will inevitably take. 

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L. B. Kier and B. Testa, Complexity and Emergence in Drug Research, Academic Press, London, 1995, pp. 1-43. 

There has evolved over the past three decades a set of general concepts that have revolutionized the way we regard and study systems in nature. Their basic premises run counter to the Newtonian reductionistic approaches and might thus be labelled post-Newtonian concepts. The central theme of this new philosophy is the recognition that the behaviour and properties of a system are non-linear combinations of the subsystems. Such a system is endowed with complexity and displays specific properties that emerge from dynamic interactions between the subsystems. We discuss briefly complexity and emergence as the two pillars of post-Newtonian thought. 

The prototype of complexity and emergent behaviour (within our realm of interest and circles of research) is liquid water. Short-range order and local... 

A LOOK AT COMPLEXITY AND EMERGENCE IN CELLS, ORGANS AND ORGANISMS... 

It follows from all issues discussed in Section 2 that, as we progress in our scientific explorations and creations, the dimensions opened by the new science of complexity will unavoidably become part of our mental universe. This will affect not only the way scientists interpret their results, but above all the way experiments are designed and planned in our reality, both physical and virtual. How complexity and emergent properties can effect drug research is examined, sometimes provocatively, in Section 3. 

The prediction of clinical effects from pharmacological data is the Holy Grail of many pharmacologists. But because pharmacological data can be obtained from biological systems at different levels of complexity, there are a number of rungs in the ladder of extrapolation to clinical effects. And how, the reader may wonder, is this pursuit relevant to the context of our discussion on complexity and emergent properties ... 

The concepts of complexity and emergent properties, discussed here within the context of drug research, must become integral parts of every step in this collective effort as it is practised today and as it evolves to newer methods tomorrow. However, and this remark is so important that it was kept for the end, these new concepts are not meant to replace the traditional mechanistic approaches that have proven so successful in drug research. Rather, the post-Newtonian vision must blend with the Newtonian philosophy to enlarge and enrich our mental world. As so aptly stated by Edward O. Wilson, the father of sociobiology (quoted in Lewin, 1993) ... 

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