132 TEMPORAL ORGANIZATION IN CELLS 



that a theoretical search for other interactions is of some importance. Our 

 results barely scratch the surface of this field of inquiry. A more complete 

 understanding of the forces operating between strongly-interacting non-linear 

 oscillators is of interest not only in biology, but also in engineering and eco- 

 nomics, where systems composed of large numbers of interacting non-linear 

 oscillators also arise. However, in the context of epigenetic theory one of the 

 most intriguing possibilities is that an analysis of these forces of interaction 

 may allow one to formulate general principles of temporal organization which 

 might hold for a wide class of biological systems showing rhythmic properties. 

 This would represent an important step in the direction of discovering the 

 fundamental laws of biological organization. And if such a principle was found 

 to have the same basic characteristics as those operating in Darwinian systems 

 so that in effect "evolutionary" forces are at work in the temporal ordering of 

 rhythmic activities in biological systems, as suggested by Pringle, then another 

 area of biology will have come within the scope of this most comprehensive 

 and intuitively satisfactory theory of biological process. 



