THE FORMATION OF A FROG EMBRYO

The embryo starts as a ball of cells. The ball splits down the middle. An axis is introduced. The wholeness of each stage is consistent with the wholeness of the previous stage. The centers which exist in the wholeness at each stage --both large centers dominating the big pattern, and small ones locally-- are largely left intact by the next transformation. The next transformation introduces new structures, usually in the form of new asymmetrically place local symmetries which induce new layers of structure --hence a new differentiation-– but rarely or never disperse the underlying deep structure of the old, even when it changes things.

The Process of Creating Life: The Nature of Order , Book 2 An Essay of the Art of Building and the Nature of the Universe by Christopher Alexander