self-organization
Self-organization concepts that were first developed in chemistry and physics and then applied to various morphogenetic problems in biology over the past century are now beginning to be applied to the organization of the living cell.
See also
self-assembly
References
Karsenti E. Self-organization in cell biology: a brief history. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2008 Mar;9(3):255-62. PMID: #18292780#
Gimona M. Protein linguistics - a grammar for modular protein assembly? Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2006 Jan;7(1):68-73. PMID: #16493414#
Maly IV, Borisy GG. Self-organization of treadmilling microtubules into a polar array. Trends Cell Biol. 2002 Oct;12(10):462-5. PMID: #12441249#