Homeostasis

Homeostasis (Greek ὁμοιοστάσις homoiostásis " tie " ) refers to the maintenance of an equilibrium of an open dynamic system by an internal regulatory process. It is therefore a special case of the self-regulation of systems. The term is used in many disciplines such as in physics, biology, ecology, in economics, sociology, psychology, or in jurisprudence. A system in homeostasis is a homeostat.

History

The concept of homeostasis was described in 1860 by the physiologist Claude Bernard and coined the term and its designation in 1929 and 1932 by Walter Cannon and Karl Ludwig von Bertalanffy.

Biology

The biology knows many equilibrium states, their maintenance is done using special homeostatic processes. The balance may be maintained within a cell, an organ or an organism. The receivable property may be anatomically, chemically, physically or mathematically ( cell number ). In physiology, the term homeostasis is defined as maintenance of a constant internal environment ( target state ), which comes into being through regulation. An example of this is the homeostasis in the brain, which is maintained across the blood- brain barrier.

• Thermoregulation, thermogenesis, brown adipose tissue
• Osmoregulation
• Regulation of blood glucose levels, blood sugar see - sensor system, blood sugar regulation #, insulin and other products
• Regulation of energy balance, see energy expenditure, energy balance ( diet ), obesity, glucagon, insulin, leptin, Thermogenin, adipocytes, hunger, metabolic Metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance, leptin resistance

Social sciences

In the case of social systems have Niklas Luhmann, Francisco Varela and Humberto Maturana R. advocates to replace the term homeostasis by the term homeodynamics because the stasis would call a halt and hence the death of a ( self-regulating ) system.