A cell is an example of an autopoietic organization; a ribosome is an example of an allopoietic organization.


Consider for example the case of a cell: it is a network of chemical reactions which produce molecules such that (i) through their interactions generate and participate recursively in the same network of reactions which produced them, and (ii) realize the cell as a material unity.

Thus the cell as a physical unity, topographically and operationally separable from the background, remains as such only insofar as this organization as continuously realized under permanent turnover of matter, regardless of its changes in form and specificity of its constitutive chemical reactions. (A 188)

For example, although the ribosome itself is partially composed of components produced by ribosomes, as a unity it is produced by processes other than those which constitute its operation. (A 189)


This page was last updated on July 9, 1996, by Rob Sable.