Network

A network is a representation of a system of connected components. The network may be represented as a connected graph, a multi-graph, hypergraph, colored graph, meta-graph or category, and it has therefore a specific topological structure, or topology specified by the connections present between the system components. The behavior(s) of a network is (are), in general, distinct from that of its components, although it is ultimately determined by the interactions between its components. Whereas the network specifying a computer, an automaton, or a machine, or device, is decomposable into certain types of major subnetworks, such as group machines (clocks) and state-permutation modules, bionetworks of highly complex systems such as organisms are not decomposable in this sense into any simpler subnetworks or bio-modules without the loss of essential physiological functions that are characteristic to Life and living organisms.


 * The genome of a cell can be represented by a genetic network which contains all the genes of the organisms that are functionally, or operationally, linked.
 * The proteome of a cell is the network of all interacting proteins in a physiologically functional (living) cell.
 * The neural network of a brain can be represented as a graph of all connected neurons in the brain.