Friday, June 13, 2008

Morphogenetics Field

Have you ever heard about morphogenetic fields? The concept of the morphogenetic field, fundamental in the early twentieth century, to the study of embryological development, was first introduced in 1910 by Alexander G. Gurwitsch. Experimental support was provided by Ross G. Harrison's experiments transplanting fragments of a new embryo into different locations.

I am not sure whether the term morphogenetics field firstly came from physics or other science branches, but the morphogenetic field is a middle ground between genes and evolution. It shows that once the fundamental pattern is formed, it will be very easy for other molecules/ genes/ cells to follow the pattern.

In the laboratory, I really found this phenomenon, almost 6-7 years ago. I failed to develop formulas for bioactive agents. I tried to follow every formula under, one of them, the scanning electron microscopy. No changes. I was about to give up when one day, on the surface of one among many specimens, I found bone-like apatite formation. Very tiny. But once we found the tiny molecule, the next days, many similar molecules were developed very fast on the surface of the specimens!

When we transform the lab phenomenon into the real day-by-day life, the same morphogenetic field law seems to happen. A new concept (no matter how good it is) is usually asked, even rejected. But once it becomes evidence, the concept will be easily spread all over.

Is this also what we should believe in managing an institution? I do not know, but once we reach critical mass and critical geometry of something, it is time to see the wind of change. Just a piece of word to live the blog. Groetjes

P.S. Today Holland beat France 4-1! Aanvalluh! Hup Nistelrooy Hup

4 comments:

International Deans' Course said...

i'm not a medical scientist and i don't understand a thing about this "morphogeneticity". Whatever it is, i congratulate Ika for her breakthrough discovery. Who knows, one day, the IDCSEA2008 alaumni will be a Nobel Laureate and i will be very proud to have been part of the IDCSEA2008.

One key word struck me, and that is; critical mass. i agree that critical mass is a necessary condition for things to happen.

However, to reach critical mass, we need the leaders to push forward the ideas and guide the process of change. This is similar to institutional changes and metamorphosis.

ikadewiana said...

Dear Faizal, thank you for comment. That is not discovery at all. That is a story about my failure. I agree with you that we have to push forward the ideas and guide the process of change. Salam.

International Deans' Course said...

True success cannot be achieved without failure. Thomas Edison would not have been able to invent the light bulb if he had not made 1,00o failures.

That is why we have the saying, "blessing in disguise," when we thought something bad happened, but actually it is a lesson for us to improve further. What say you, ika.

ikadewiana said...

I remember the word "kaizen", continuous improvement, like what you said. The practice of self-improving and self-expanding is very important for us. Second for you, Faizal!