A rather more compelling reason to be interested in Open systems than competitive advantage for individual scientists... - Bill Hooker

would be interesting to run a simulation of an extensive (i.e. bigger than flat & round worms) multicellular system bearing neurocrine, but lacking circulatory-endocrine communication...do you have any experts in mind? ;-) - Yaroslav Nikolaev

Unfortunately, no -- but if there are any to be found, I suspect they are on FF. :-) - Bill Hooker

well I am not sure how to answer this, but Adrenal cells in all three zone (zona fasciculata, zona reticularis and zona glomerulosa) secrete the steroid hormone in response to circulatory-endocrine communication via ACTH hormone released by pituitary gland (which is 2nd in HPA series). Removal of the pituitary gland leads to little or no hormone synthesis in the zona fasciculata or reticularis, but the zona glomerulosa continues to function properly. If one believe in migration theory of adrenal cortex zonation (migration of zona fasciculata cells towards zona glomerulosa), it become hard to explain how same cell showing a differential behavior. - Abhishek Tiwari

And how sharp is the transition between the cortex layers which become incapable of hormone synthesis upon pituitary gland removal? Assuming that fasciculata>glomerulosa migration takes place, differential behavior might simply mean that different signaling cascades are activated in the glomerulosa layer due to local environment conditions....although I'm not sure how this relates to the value of open/networked communication for stability of a multicellular organism?! - Yaroslav Nikolaev

I was just commenting about "multicellular system bearing neurocrine, but lacking circulatory-endocrine communication", otherwise transition must be very slow although theory itself is not well established. - Abhishek Tiwari