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Analysis of information processing in biological sensory organs and in engineered microsystems using the mathematical tools of communication theory. Natural or synthetic structures are modeled as microscale communication networks implemented under physical constraints, such as size and available energy resources and are studied at two levels of abstraction. At the information processing level we examine the functional specification, while at the implementation level we examine the physical specification and realization. Both levels are characterized by Shannon's channel capacity, as determined by the channel bandwidth, the signal power, and the noise power. The link between the information processing level and the implementation level of abstraction is established through first principles and phenomenological otherwise, models for transformations on the signal, constraints on the system, and noise that degrades the signals.