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Ph.D. 

The membrane boundary enveloping each biological cell comprises
the structural basis of a biological _processor_ _system_ (see
article: Cellular Consciousness). As a processor, the cells membrane
receptors scan the environment for signals. Obviously the environment
is awash in signals. If all the signals were audible, the environment
would sound like blaring noise. However, the specificity of reception
that is characteristic for each receptor IMP, enables it to
distinguish its complementary signal out of all the jumbled ambient
noise. The cells ability to selectively filter useful information out
of "chaotic" noise resembles the function of _Fourier transformations_
[mathematical filtering processes which find _signals_ within what
appears to be _noise_] on complex inputs to perceive specific
frequencies as informational signals. While the environment is in a
sense "chaotic," with hundreds and thousands of
simultaneously-expressed "signals," the cell can selectively read only
those signals that are relevant to its existence. Based upon the
functional and structural features of the cell membrane, each single
cell (e.g., amoeba) represents a _self-powered microcomputer system_.
As in digital computers, the power or information handling capacity of
the "cellular" computer is determined by the number of its BITs it can
manage. In computers, the BITs are gate/channel complexes, in the
membrane processor, the BITs are represented by receptor/effector
complexes. The IMP molecules comprising the cells BITs have defined
physical parameters and therefore can be "measured." The dimension of
the IMP proteins is approximately the same as the thickness of the
membrane. Since the IMPs, by definition, reside _within_ the membranes
bilayer, the proteins can only be arranged as a monolayer (meaning the
IMPs can not be stacked upon one another). To use the bread and butter
and olive sandwich metaphor, there are only so many olives that can be
layered on the bread. To have more olives in the sandwich requires the
use of a larger slice of bread. The same applies to increasing the
number of perception-IMP units in the membrane: the more IMPs-the more
surface area of membrane required to hold them. The cells information
processing capability (reflected in the number of perception proteins)
is directly linked to the surface area of the membrane. The profound
point of this discourse...Biological awareness is a _measurable_
property, and is _directly correlated_ with the surface area of the
cells membrane. Consequently the computing power of a cell is
physically determined by limitations imposed on cellular dimensions.
The _first phase of evolution_ of life concerned the development and
refinement of the individual biological computer 'chip', the primitive
_bacterium_. The size of these primitive organisms is constrained by
the fact that they posses a rigid outer skeleton, derived from the
polysaccharides of the glycocalyx. The matrix produced by the
cross-linking of the sugar molecules in this "coat" provides for the
cells protective "skeleton," called a _capsule_. The capsule
physically supports and protects the cells thin membrane from
rupturing under the strains of osmotic pressure. Osmotic pressure is
the force generated by the desire of water to move through a membrane
to "balance" the concentration of particles on each side of the
membrane barrier. The cells cytoplasm is packed with particles
compared to the water in which cells live. Water from the external
environment will pass through the membrane to dilute the concentration
of cytoplasmic particulates. The cell would swell up with water and
the pressure would cause the delicate membrane bilayer to rupture,
killing the cell. The glycocalyx exoskeleton resists life threatening
osmotic pressure. Bacteria are the cellular equivalent of
invertebrates, (animals not possessing an internal supportive skeleton
(e.g., clams, insects, jelly fish). While the skeleton protects the
bacterium, its rigid nature also limits it. The bacterial cell size is
limited by its outer capsule. The size limitation restricts the amount
of membrane the cell can possess. Membrane surface area is
proportional to awareness, based upon the number of IMPs it can
contain. The bacterial capsule limits the cells evolution since there
is a cap on the number of units of perception the membrane can
contain. In fact, most of the bacteriums membrane surface area is used
to house the necessary IMP complexes required for cell survival.
However, each bacterium is also capable of _learning_ about six
additional environmental "signals." For example, a bacterium may
acquire the ability to resist an antibiotic introduced into the
environment. It does this by creating a surface receptor that binds
and inhibits the molecules of the antibiotic. The new receptor is
fundamentally the equivalent of a protein "antibody" that our immune
cells create to neutralize an invasive antigen. The creation of a new
receptor, by definition, implies that there must be a _new_ gene
created to remember the amino acid code for that protein. In bacteria,
these "new" _memory_ genes are present as tiny circles of DNA called
_plasmids_. The plasmids are not physically attached to cells
heredity-providing chromosome and float freely in the cytoplasm.
Bacteria are capable of creating an average of about six _different_
plasmids, each derived from a unique _learning_ "experience." The
limitation on the number of plasmids the cell possesses is not due to
an inability to make DNA. For the bacterium can make thousands of
copies of any of the individual plasmids it possesses. The limitations
must be related to the fact that each "new" protein perception complex
requires a unit of surface area to express its functions. The
inability to expand its membrane (i.e., surface area) limits the
bacteriums ability to acquire new perceptions (awareness). The more
awareness the greater the ability to survive. Limitations upon
individuals increasing their awareness, led to bacteria living in
loosely knit communities. If an individual bacterium can "learn" six
facts about the environment, than a hundred bacteria are collectively
capable of being aware of 600 facts. Bacteria developed mechanisms to
transfer copies of their plasmids to other bacteria in the community.
By transferring copies of their "learned" DNA, they share their
"awareness" with the community. Bacteria can transfer a plasmid to
another individual. The recipient bacterium can use the donated
plasmids "awareness" during its life, but generally can not pass
copies of the plasmid on to its daughter cell progeny. Bacteria
possess fine tentacle-like projections that extend from their outer
surface called pili. When the pili from two bacteria touch, the pilus
membranes can momentarily fuse, joining the cytoplasm of the two cells
together. At the moment of fusion, the two bacteria can exchange
copies of their plasmids. Bacteria are also able to scarf-up free
floating DNA in the environment, so plasmids released into the
environment, as might occur when a cell dies and its cytoplasm leaks
out, may be scavenged by other cells. However, the environment is
tough on free-floating DNA and the plasmids easily break down. A
third, more effective means of distributing "awareness" plasmids arose
when bacteria learned how to package their plasmid DNA into protective
protein shells, creating _viruses_. Viruses contain "information" that
are released to other individual cells in the environment. Some
viruses kill the cells that pick them up, while other viruses protect
the cells that they "infect." Sometimes "information" is life
affirming, sometimes it's lethal. Bacterial communities evolved a
means to increase their survival by deploying an polysaccharide
extracellular matrix to envelope all of the cells in the community and
"protect" them from the ravages of the wild environment. Individual
bacteria were able to move through "irrigated" channels within the
matrix. The channels also allowed a communication of extracellular
materials and information molecules, which provided a communal
integration among all of the members of the community. The cellular
community may be populated with a variety of bacterial species. For
example, oxygen-fearing anaerobic forms of bacteria can live at the
bottom of a community, while oxygen-loving aerobic bacteria are
present in upper levels of the same community. Bacteria within the
community are readily able to exchange their DNA, and in so doing
enable the cellular citizens to acquire specialized, differentiated
functions. These matrix-encased bacterial communities are called
_biofilms_ (see illustration below). Biofilms have become very
important since they are now recognized to protect bacterial
communities from antibiotics. The bacteria that form tooth cavities
are actually biofilm communities, which resist our efforts to scour
them from our teeth. The resistive and protective nature of the
biofilms enabled these communities to be the first life forms to leave
the ocean and live on the land. Many years ago, biologist Lynn
Margulis founded the concept that mitochondria were bacterial-like
organisms that invaded the cytoplasm of more advanced
nucleus-containing cells called eukaryotes. At first her ideas were
ridiculed by the establishment, but over the years it has become a
widely accepted belief. Interestingly, an understanding of the
communal nature of bacteria in biofilms offers another interpretation.
The micrograph on the left illustrates a an example of a biofilm in a
human lung. The infective _pseudomonas_ bacterial clump is encased in
a dark staining extracellular matrix ( see arrow) comprising a
biofilm. Encapsulation within the matrix protects the bacteria from
the immune systems efforts to destroy them. The matrix, primarily made
of carbohydrates, can also contain the muscle proteins, _actin _and_
myosin_, which are found bound to the outer surfaces of some bacteria.
The external actin and myosin proteins enable the bacteria to move
within the films matrix. The micrograph on the right is the same
picture, but with a "membrane " drawn around the films periphery. A
membrane around the film would enable the bacterial community to
finely control the composition and character of their environment, a
necessary development that would enhance their survival. This modified
film resembles the cytological anatomy of the evolutionarily more
advanced eukaryotic cell. In this case the bacteria would represent
the cells organelles and the films matrix would represent the
cytoskeletal-rich cytoplasm between the organelles. Interestingly, the
eukaryotes cytoplasm possesses many of the same structural components
that characterize the biofilms matrix. This especially true of the
actin and myosin which enable the bacteria to move in the film in the
same manner that organelles move in the cytoplasm. The point of this
discussion is that the more advanced eukaryotic cell, rather than
being an evolved _single_ entity, might represent the evolution of a
bacterial community. A cell would represent a finely tuned community
of prokaryotes that have differentiated into organelles. Such a
hypothesis supports the beliefs of pleomorphic biologists, a small but
staunch group of scientists that believe disease related
micro-organisms may represent life forms that arose, budded-off, from
dying cells. Makes sense. Regardless, the _second phase of evolution_
saw the origin of the more sophisticated eukaryotic (nucleated) cell.
However, evolution ceased when the nucleated cell reached its maximum
specific size, for there are physical limitations imposed on cellular
life. If the cell attempts to expand its surface area beyond a given
size, the cell will become unstable, for if it exceeds certain
dimensions, the membrane will not be physically able to constrain the
mass of its cytoplasm. This will lead to a rupture of the membrane and
a loss of the membrane potential (from which the cell draws its
life-giving energy). Also, if the cell exceeds a certain diameter,
than the process of diffusion would not enable enough oxygen for
metabolic processing to reach the central portion of the cell. As a
result, in the history of evolution, the first 3 billion years were
primarily associated with appearance and evolution _unicellular
organisms_ (bacteria, algae, protozoans). It was the origin of
_multicellular organisms_ that represented an alternative way to
expand the membrane surface area (i.e., awareness potential) beyond
the limitations of the single cell. Consequently, in what amounted to
a _third phase of evolution_, an increase in biological "computer"
power (awareness) resulted from a the same process of organizing into
higher order communities. Rather than increasing awareness of the
individual eukaryotic cell, the third phase of evolution was concerned
with the ordering of individual eukaryotic cell 'chips' into
interactive assemblies. This "phasing" of evolution resembles that
which occurred in the computer industry. Texas Instruments developed
the chip. Individual chips are the heart of the simple _calculator_.
However, when many chips were integrated and wired together they
provided for the _computer_. When individual computers reached their
maximum power, supercomputers were created by assembling many
computers into an organized parallel-processing "community." The
bacteriums relation to the eukaryotic cell is tantamount to the chips
relationship with the computer. The eukaryotic cells relation to the
multicellular organism is the same as an individual computers relation
to the whole in a parallel-processing network. In computers, the
"power" of the machine is measured in BIT handling capacities. In
biological organisms, the "awareness" potential is reflected in the
number and variety of integrated IMP complexes. Since the quantity of
IMPs is directly linked to "surface area," awareness becomes a factor
of shared membrane surfaces in the multicellular organisms. Consider
that surface area relationship in regard to vertebrate brain
evolution. First vertebrate brains are small, smooth spheres. As one
ascends the evolutionary ladder, the brains become larger and more
surface area is subsequently derived from infoldings of the brains
surface that produce the characteristic sulci (grooves) and gyri
(folds) of more advanced brains. Interestingly, when considering
awareness in terms of brain surface, humans are in _second_ place
since porpoise and dolphin brains have a larger surface area. It is
proposed that similar to unicellular protozoans, human beings
represent another evolutionary endpoint, the highest level of
development for a multicellular biological structure. In a series of
events redundant to those that occurred in the previous two cycles of
evolution, human evolution continued through a process of assembly and
integration of individuals into a multi-"cellular" community. In this
community known as _humanity_, each person's role is analogous to that
of a single cell in the human construct. In the global view of the
Earth as a living organism (Gaia), humans are the IMP equivalents in
the Earth's surface membrane. Humans, as receptors and effectors,
assemble and integrate into patterned networks (community) in the
Earth's envelope wherein they receive environmental "signals" and
serve as switching mechanisms of the planet's membrane gates. These
studies reveal that past and future evolution can be mathematically
modeled in the structure and elaboration of the cell membrane. The
best way to organize two-dimensional membrane surface area into a
three-dimensional cell space is to employ _fractal geometry_. In
Nature, most inorganic and organic structures express an "irregular"
pattern. However, within the apparent chaos of the irregularities, one
finds that the irregular structures are "regularly" repeated (i.e.,
they show a form of order). For example, the pattern of branching in a
trees twig is often the same pattern of branching that is observed on
the trees trunk. The pattern of branching of a major river is
identical to the pattern of branching observed along its smaller
tributaries. The pattern of branches along the bronchus is a
reiteration of the pattern of airway branches along the smallest
bronchioles. Similar images of reiterated branching patterns in the
body are revealed in the arterial and venous blood vessels and
peripheral nervous system. The French mathematician, Benoit Mandelbrot
was the first to recognize that the geometry of many of Natures
objects revealed a similar pattern regardless of the scale it was
examined on. The more you magnify the image, the more the structure
appears the same. Mandelbrot introduced the term "self-similar" to
describe such objects. "In 1975, Mandelbrot coined the word _fractal_
as a convenient label for irregular and fragmented self-similar
shapes. The mathematics of fractals is amazingly simple in that it
consists of repeating "operations" of additions and multiplications.
In the process, the result of one operation is used as the input for
the subsequent operation; the result of that operation is then used as
the input for the next operation, and so on. Mathematically, all the
"operations" use the exact same formula, however, they must be
repeated _millions_ of times to get the solution. The manual labor and
time required to complete a fractal equation prevented mathematicians
from recognizing the "power" of Fractal Geometry until the advent of
powerful computers enabled Benoit Mandelbrot to define this new math.
In classical geometry the points, lines, surface areas and cubic
structures all represent dimensions expressed in whole integers, 0-,
1-, 2-, and 3-dimensions, respectively. Fractal geometry is employed
to model images that are more "interdimensional." For example a curved
line is a 1-dimensional object. In fractals the curve can zig-zag so
much that it actually comes close to filling the plane. If the curve
of the line is relatively simple it is close to a dimension of 1. If
the lines curves are so tightly packed that they fill the space, the
line approaches 2-dimensions. Fractal Geometry fills in the spaces
between whole number dimensions. A structural characteristic of
fractals is relatively simple to understand: fractals exhibit a
reiterated pattern of "structures" nested within one another. Each
smaller structure is a miniature, but not necessarily an exact version
of the larger form. Fractal mathematics emphasizes the relation
between the patterns seen in the whole and the patterns seen in parts
of that whole. For example, the pattern of twigs on a branch resembles
the pattern of limbs branching off of the trunk. Fractal objects can
be represented by a "box" within a "box," within a "box," within a
"box," etc. If one knows the parameters of the first "box," then one
is automatically provided with the basic pattern that characterizes
all of the other (larger or smaller) "boxes." As described in the
_Mathematics of Human Life_ article by W. Allman (cited in reference
section), "Mathematical studies of fractals reveal that the
branching-within-branching structure of a fractal represents the best
way to get the most surface area within a three-dimensional space...."
While the cell membrane is in reality a 3-dimensional object, its
molecular bilayer possesses a constant and uniform thickness. As such
the thickness of the membrane can be ignored and the membrane can be
modeled as a 2-dimensional "surface-area" structure. Since evolution
is the modeling of the membranes awareness (related to its surface
area), the efficiency of modeling provided by fractal geometry would
most likely reflect that chosen by Nature. The point is not to get
caught-up in the mathematics of the modeling. The point is that the
fractal model _predicts_ that evolution will be based upon a
reiterated pattern of "structures nested within one another! More
specifically, as it relates to a concept of Fractal Evolution, "the
pattern of the whole is seen in the parts of the whole," this means
that the pattern of the human is seen in the parts (cells) of the
human. If one is aware of the pattern by which a cell is functionally
organized, than one is also provided insight into the organization of
a human. Consider this: the fractal images of smaller structures are
miniatures of the larger whole. Therefore, while the structure of
humans is a self-similar image of their own cells, the structure of
human civilization would represent a self-similar structure of its
component humans! Humans are a fractal image of society, cells are a
fractal image of the human. In fact, cells are a fractal image of
society as well. The fractal nature of evolution is further implied by
the reiterated, self-same patterns observed in each of the three
cycles of evolution.