Further to the considerations about homeostasis made on this blog, I was reading some books by Edmund Sinnott (1888-1968) recently in which he raises the question of biological organisation and its maintenance. Sinnott is not somebody well known to biologists - at least in the UK. I only came across him because of a quote of his used by JH Woodger (1894-1981) in his book ‘Biology and Language: An introduction to the methodology of the biological sciences including medicine’ (Cambridge University Press, 1952). In what I read, Sinnott raised the question of the biological role played by Le Chatelier’s principle.
A concise definition of Le Chatelier's principle from Merriam-Webster Dictionary (and cited on Wikipedia) is as follows,
If the equilibrium of a system is disturbed by a change in one or more of the determining factors (such as temperature, pressure, or concentration) the system tends to adjust itself to a new equilibrium by counteracting as far as possible the effect of the change.
The question Sinnott asks is to what extent chemical phenomena, such as Le Chatelier’s principle, contribute to the emergence of homeostasis. Le Chatelier’s principle arises out of the nature of physico-chemical phenomena; homeostasis is a product of the way in which the body is organised. Does the latter arise out of the former?
Le Chatelier's principle is not something widely discussed in undergraduate biology. I do not recollect it being mentioned even as part of the biochemistry courses I followed. However, the notion of biochemical equilibrium was mentioned - albeit from a purely (bio)chemical perspective. The focus was always on - what might be called - the behaviour of the chemistry. That these might feed into a higher level - more organised - stability was not explored.
