A Uniform Model for the Growth of Biological Organisms: Cooperating Sequential Processes

A biological organism is a collection of cells separated by membranes. It is alive if events occur in some of the cells, which cause the cells to change state. It can develop if events occur in some of the cells, which cause the cells to divide and coalesce. Many models of this view of developing organisms have been studied — graph systems, map systems and L-systems. We shall show that each of these is a special case of a simple uniform model: cooperating sequential processes. This model can be summarised by: a process is a formal mathematical objectglobal processes are constructed from local processesproductions describe how one local process changes into another in a single stepproductions cooperate to change one global process into anotherthe development of an organism corresponds to the development of a global process from a seed.