Classification of self-organization and emergence in chemical and biological systems

Most chemical and biological systems are complex, but the application of complex systems science to these fields is relatively new compared to the traditional reductionist approaches. Complexity can provide a new paradigm for understanding the behaviour of interesting chemical and biological systems, and new tools for studying, modelling, and simulating them. It is also likely that some very important, but very complicated systems may not be accessible by reductionist approaches. This paper provides a brief review of two important concepts in complexity, self-organization and emergence, and describes why they are relevant to chemical and biological systems.