Page 50 - through Clusters and Networks
P. 50
Self-organizing
miracles
It is evident that all living things are programmed by nature to self-organize.
This miracle is coded deep at the molecular levels in perhaps all things and
can be observed equally in the inanimate world. As part of next experiment,
under the microscope, I came to observe the way hundreds of oil droplets
behave in water within a 20mm Petri dish and by unthinking simple rules,
create the most amazing patterns of complex molecular arrangements.
Scientific explanation of this phenomenon lies in interaction of polarity of
water molecules with non-polarity of oil molecules. Being polar, water
molecules have opposite charge on their ends and stick together through
connections called a “hydrogen bond”. Oil molecules, being non-polar, exhibit
stronger attraction to water than towards other oil molecules and that results
in oil spreading out in the form of thin films.
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