140.

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		2.6.4— Biological Implications of the Control of Chaos

		1— Clinical Control

		We used to think that the variability of biological systems is generated by mechanisms that we will never be able to understand because it involves chance events. However, if the variability of some biological systems arises from deterministic chaos, then we may be able to understand and even control these systems.

		New mathematical methods have been developed to control chaotic systems. Some of the people who have used these methods to control electronic and mechanical systems have also used them to control the beating of a piece of the heart and the electrical activity in a piece of the brain.

		The success of these early experiments suggests the tantalizing promise that these methods may lead to clinical applications where small electrical signals are used to control abnormal rhythms in the heart or seizures in the brain. More speculatively, these methods could be used to control the level of substances in the blood, such as glucose, or the number of cells of different types in the immune system.

 

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