Biological System: What It Is, Characteristics And Components
From a biological point of view, life refers to that which distinguishes animals, plants, fungi, protists, archaea and bacteria from the rest of natural realities.
Life involves the capabilities of living beings to organize at the tissue level, grow, metabolize substances, respond to external stimuli to a greater or lesser extent, reproduce (sexually or asexually) and die.
Experiments like Miller’s and his primordial soup have brought us closer to the conception of life, since in it various organic molecules were synthesized from inorganic materials, which correspond to the bases of the cells that give rise to all the organisms. living beings on the planet. Even so, the emergence of “being” from “non-being” remains an unknown, since producing living beings from material that has never been alive continues to suppose a biological impossibility.
These data put into perspective the intricate complexity of all living beings, from the most basic single-celled bacteria to the human being and all the organs with specialized cells that make it up. To understand the particularities of each biological taxon and its functioning, we have to go to the definition of the biological system and the interactions between those who make us up. Today we tell you everything about this exciting and little-known term.
Although it sounds redundant, The only possible definition that adequately describes the term that concerns us today is “a complex network of biologically relevant entities.”
On the other hand, the Royal Academy of Engineering describes a biological system as a set of relevant organs and structures that work together to fulfill some physiological function in a living being, such as the cardiovascular, circulatory, arterial, and adrenal systems. and many others. This last meaning may be valid, but it leaves behind several very interesting concepts.
A biological system, on the other hand, It should not be confused in any case as a living system/organism per se The set of systems allows life, but a system alone is not alive.
The basic biological system: the cell
When addressing this term, many informative sources resort directly to the concepts that best fit a system: the digestive system, for example, which is made up of a series of organs and ducts that allow us to ingest, metabolize and excrete remains. food. Even so, we cannot forget that absolutely all living beings on this planet are composed of a biological system on a microscopic scale: the cell.
Thus, a limited definition of the cell is the morphological and functional unit of every living being. It is a complex thermodynamic biological system, since it has all the characteristics to maintain itself over time (if we do not talk about specializations). For a cell to be considered as such, it must meet the following requirements:
As you can observe, A cell is a biological system if we look at the first definition provided: a complex network of biologically relevant entities In this case, we conceive as an “entity” each of the organelles, the genetic information, the cytosol and the membranes that delimit their spaces, which are interconnected to give rise to a “larger entity”, in this case, the structure basic for life.
Moving up the evolutionary ladder: other biological systems
Although the cell is the most basic biological system that we can describe, one of the miracles of life is the association of a group of cells according to specialized functions This is how eukaryotic living beings arise, those that have more than a single cell in our body, unlike bacteria, archaea and protozoa, for example.
At this point we talk about organ and tissue systems, understanding “organ” as an association of various tissues of cellular origin that form a structural unit responsible for carrying out a specific function within a multicellular organism. Thus, these structures are one step above tissue, but one step below the typical biological system.
What can we say here that each of the readers does not know? The respiratory system, the digestive system, the cardiovascular system, the urinary system, the endocrine system all of them comprise a network of ducts and organs specialized in a series of specific functions and, therefore, are conceived as common biological systems.
The last step: the biological network at the ecosystem level
As you can imagine, A biological network is a system based on subunits connected to each other within a whole For example, food webs in an ecosystem. Each of the living beings (entities) that make up a food web are composed of multiple biological systems but, at the same time, they are only a small point in the largest biological system of all: the one that allows the flow of energy and permanence. of the ecosystems that make up our planet.
It is not all about predation, as there are also biological networks based on intra- and interspecific competition without the need for the death of living beings, for example, the indirect fight for a resource or the search for a mate. An ecosystem is like a tower made of metal: if one of the fundamental pillars is removed, everything above it will collapse.
It is also necessary to note that, although we have given you the most typical example of all, a biological network It does not apply only to ecosystems and interactions between living beings For example, a biological network according to the definition provided is also a metabolic network, although on a much smaller scale than the one previously mentioned. In this case, each of the interconnected “points” are the chemical compounds, which are “united” by chemical reactions that give rise to one substance or another through the use of enzymes.
They are also biological networks, for example, neural networks, gene regulation networks and networks formed by the interaction between proteins. After all, we are talking about entities that are biologically interconnected at all times on a larger or smaller scale, right?
Not everything remains on paper, since the description of a biological system or a network provides us with a quantity of essential information to resolve doubts, climatic issues and even pathologies. We are facing an exciting field at an interdisciplinary level, since The cellular metabolism of a living being (cellular system) and its capacity for growth and development (organ system) will greatly determine the amount of biomass that contributes to an ecosystem (biological network/food web), for example. That is: everything is interconnected.
Thus, certain experiments are based on computer programs, mathematical modeling and simulation, which, based on the databases generated by certain technologies, can establish predictive computational models of biological systems. Describing a network of interconnected entities allows us to predict how they will behave in a given scenario and, without a doubt, that is vital to understanding the past, present and future of human society at a climatic and pathological level, among many other things.
The integration and correlation of the data provided by each of the systems is no longer limited solely to human subjectivity and understanding, since this computer modeling is the key to many more processes than we could initially imagine.
Summary
Without meaning to, we have taken a journey through life itself, from the first spark of being, the cell, to the network of interconnected biological systems that allows us to be in three-dimensional space surrounded by life, that is, the ecosystems that make up our life. own planet.
Biological systems are energy, complexity, interaction, but above all adjectives, they are a single thing: the explanation of life itself. From the smallest cell to the magnitude of a planet itself, everything is interconnected.
