text: user4996: I have come across a modeling toolbox, ATLANTIS, which is able to determine cell fates in silico based on the input models provided. This MATLAB-based toolbox is built on a method called "Attractor Landscape Analysis." I tried to find a paper dedicated to explaining this method but I did not have any luck so far. Can any of you folks please explain it to me, especially the term "attractor"? 
  
  user678: From Wikipedia:
  In the mathematical field of dynamical systems, an attractor is a set of numerical values toward which a system tends to evolve, for a wide variety of starting conditions of the system.
  In biology you can think of an attractor as a state towards the system is moving to. A good example is the process of differentiation where stem cells compromise to more specialized cells, that could be thought as the attractors of the process.
  
  
original_text: 4996: <p>I have come across a modeling toolbox, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22031-3" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ATLANTIS</a>, which is able to determine cell fates in silico based on the input models provided. This MATLAB-based toolbox is built on a method called "Attractor Landscape Analysis." I tried to find a paper dedicated to explaining this method but I did not have any luck so far. Can any of you folks please explain it to me, especially the term "attractor"? </p>
   678: <p>From <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attractor" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wikipedia</a>:
  In the mathematical field of dynamical systems, an attractor is a set of numerical values <strong>toward which a system tends to evolve</strong>, for a wide variety of starting conditions of the system.</p>
  
  <p>In biology you can think of an attractor as a state towards the system is moving to. A good example is the process of differentiation where stem cells compromise to more specialized cells, that could be thought as the attractors of the process.</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/aJwlG.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/aJwlG.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
  