4.3 Review

Life is a mobius strip

Journal

PROGRESS IN BIOPHYSICS & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
Volume 167, Issue -, Pages 41-45

Publisher

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.pbiomolbio.2021.08.001

Keywords

Mobius strip; Cell; Trefoil knot; Zygote; Implicate order; Explicate order

Funding

  1. NIH [HL055268]

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The homology between a knot and a cell is biologically thought-provoking, as the Trefoil Knot serves as a metaphor for the three germ layers of the gastrula. The cell membrane, resembling a mobius strip, forms a continuous surface between the inner and outer environment. Furthermore, the lipid boundary acts as a prima facie mobius strip dividing the infinite surface of the Implicate Order into inside and outside.
If you cut a mobius strip in half, the edges form a Trefoil Knot, which can be untied to form a circle, proving it's a true mathematical knot. The cell is a homologue of the mathematical knot since it, too, must be able to unknot itself to form the egg and sperm meiotically in order to reproduce. The homology between a knot and a cell is thought-provoking biologically because the Trefoil Knot is a metaphor for the endoderm, ectoderm and mesoderm, the three germ layers of the gastrula that ultimately produce the embryo, beginning with the zygote. Upon further consideration, the cell membrane is like a mobius strip, forming one continuous surface between the inner environment of the cell and the outer envi-ronment. However, it is not formed by taking a circular surface, cutting it, twisting it and attaching the two ends as you would conventionally to form a mobius strip. Conversely, David Bohm's Explicate Order forms a boundary with the Implicate Order. That lipid boundary is the prima facie mobius strip that divides the infinite surface of the Implicate Order into inside and outside by 'recalling' its pre-adapted state as lipid molecules before there was an inside or outside. (c) 2021 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

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