Modelling the biology of Escherichia coli bacteria suggests life is not as chaotic as we had thought Ezume Images/Shutterstock
Life may not exist at the “edge of chaos” after all. The long-standing belief has been challenged by computer simulations of dozens of processes within cells.
A hallmark of chaotic systems is that a small disturbance can lead to an outsized effect. The famous butterfly effect offers a classic example, where a flap of an insect’s wings is proposed to cause a storm many kilometres away. Since the late 1980s, researchers have believed that life has evolved to exist…
