SOME THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF THE BIOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS OF PHYSICS OF DISPERSE SYSTEMS

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Abstract
A review of the author's recent theoretical work on the properties of small liquid drops and more generally of systems with very large specific surface, is given. When such a system interacts chemically with the surrounding, in such a way, that the mass of the substances, of which the system is constituted, slowly increases, the system will possess, under very general conditions, properties remarkably similar to those found in living organisms. Thus it is found that such a system may possess a positive rate of growth, when its size exceeds a certain critical one. Below this critical size the rate of growth is negative. Such a system therefore can never be formed spontaneously, although all substances necessary for its formation may be present. Under certain very general conditions such a system will, under the influence of osmotic and other forces, divide into two halves, when reaching a certain size, each half again growing and dividing, and so forth. In many cases the system will possess a very definite geometrical form, which will tend to be restored, when the system is deformed by some external disturbance.

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