Emergent properties examples

The reader is encouraged to run this model and collect the average cluster size of amphiphile cells. Observing the run reveals a view of the emergent property known as micelle formation. Periodic halting of the run when these micelles are prominent will be of interest. Try a screen grab of several good examples. 

In summary, the alumina nanolayers formed by the high-temperature oxidation on NiAl alloy surfaces are structurally and chemically very different from the bulk-terminated surfaces of the various A1203 phases, and they thus provide very prototypical examples of oxide phases with novel emergent properties because of interfacial bonding and thickness confinement effects. 

Figure 6.1 The aromatic character of benzene (deriving from the conjugation of double bonds) is an example of an emergent property.

One question that can be posed after analysing these few examples is whether, and to what extent, the emergent properties can be interpreted in terms of the elements of the lower level, or, more generally, what is the relation between the emergent properties and the properties of the more basic level. 

This idea is an old one, as it was put forward by the British emergentists such as Mill (1872), Alexander (1920), Broad (1925), and to some extent by Morgan (1923), and has also been discussed in the more recent literature (see, for example, Wimsatt, 1972, and McLaughlin, 1992). In other words, the emergent property of the whole is inexplicable, i.e., non-deducible from the properties of the parts. 

Biology offers innumerable examples where the increase of complexity is attended by the onset of sophisticated emergent properties. In the previous chapter the beehive-like structure of silicon fluids was mentioned if we now consider a real honeycomb, each bee appears to behave as an independent element, acting apparently on its own account, but the whole population of bees gives a highly sophisticated collective emergent structure. The same can be said for an anthill or... 

The pharmacophore is another example of a species with a distinct level of complexity lying between the systems described as atoms and those described as molecules. The existence of a pharmacophore is an emergent property defined by a pharmacological receptor and this confers upon it the identity of a complex system. 

In the present section, we consider molecules of usual size, i.e. of molecular weights (MW) of the order of 10. In Section 2.3 we shall consider emergence in macromolecules (MW of the order of 10 -10 ). Between these two levels, however, we believe that there exists an intermediate level of large molecules (MW of the order of KP) which may display emergent properties not seen in smaller molecules. What we have in mind here as an example is a property labelled chameleonic behaviour , whereby a large molecule is able to display large variations in polarity and lipophilicity due to very marked conformational changes as a function of solvent. 

The exclusion principle is one example of an emergent property. It cannot be predicted, or even formulated, from all the known properties of a single electron, but emerges as an inevitable property of a world collective of electrons, or other fermions - particles with half a unit of spin angular momentum. 

Part of the added value of using methods in which the electronic degrees of freedom are treated explicitly is the insights that may be garnered concerning the electronic properties of a material. To provide some feel for the types of results that emerge, an example of the densities of states for several materials is shown in fig. 4.21. 

What are emergent properties Provide several examples. 

The complex and diverse morphologies of plants and animals are examples of the whole being greater than the sum of the Individual parts, more technically described as the emergent properties of a complex system. For example, the root-stem-leaf organization of plants permits them to simultaneously obtain energy (sunlight) and carbon (CO2) from... 

Bunge cites as an example of such an emergent property that of having a composition that changes lawfully in the course of time. The atomic and molecular components do not show this property of composition. Likewise, Primas says that even though we can calculate certain molecular properties... 

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