the problem of organic form

Green Algae. A microorganism that uses protons to produce molecular hydrogen.

"The external configuration is usually rather simple, but there is packed into the interior of an organism an amazing complexity of structures which have long been the delight of anatomists. The specific form of a plant or animal is determined not only by the genes in that organism and the cytoplasmic activities that these direct but by the interaction between genetic constitution and environment. A given gene does not control a specific trait, but a specific reaction to a specific environment."
-From The Problem of Organic Form by Edmund W. Sinnott, 1963. Seen in Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture by Robert Venturi, 1966.