Symmetries throughout organic evolution.

García-Bellido, A · Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · 1996

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Abstract

The biological realm has inherited symmetries from the physicochemical realm, but with the increasing complexity at higher phenomenological levels of life, some inherited symmetries are broken while novel symmetries appear. These symmetries are of two types, structural and operational. Biological novelties result from breaking operational symmetries. They are followed by acquisition of regularity and stability, in a recurrent process throughout complexity levels.

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