Dance to the Tune of Life: Biological Relativity

Description

In this thought-provoking book, Denis Noble formulates the theory of biological relativity, emphasising that living organisms operate at multiple levels of complexity and must therefore be analysed from a multi-scale, relativistic perspective. Noble explains that all biological processes operate by means of molecular, cellular and organismal networks. The interactive nature of these fundamental processes is at the core of biological relativity and, as such, challenges simplified molecular reductionism. Noble shows that such an integrative view emerges as the necessary consequence of the rigorous application of mathematics to biology. Drawing on his pioneering work in the mathematical physics of biology, he shows that what emerges is a deeply humane picture of the role of the organism in constraining its chemistry, including its genes, to serve the organism as a whole, especially in the interaction with its social environment. This humanistic, holistic approach challenges the common gene-centred view held by many in modern biology and culture. Cover......Page 1 Half title......Page 2 Title......Page 4 Copyright......Page 5 Contents......Page 6 Preface......Page 10 Acknowledgements......Page 16 The Sky at Night......Page 20 Early Cosmologies......Page 24 The Copernican Revolution......Page 26 Galileo: Father of Modern Science......Page 28 The Earth from a Billion Miles......Page 30 Newton’s Laws of Motion......Page 31 Nineteenth-Century Certainties......Page 32 Quantum Mechanics......Page 34 Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity......Page 36 Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity......Page 39 Can We ‘Feel’ the Consequences of Relativity?......Page 40 Hubble’s Deep Field Views......Page 42 Conclusions......Page 43 The Sense of Scale......Page 49 Scales and Levels......Page 51 Atoms and Ions......Page 54 Molecules......Page 58 Molecules as Systems......Page 61 Networks......Page 65 Organelles......Page 66 Cells......Page 67 Tissues......Page 70 Organs......Page 73 Whole-Body Systems......Page 74 The Organism as a Whole......Page 82 Conclusions......Page 83 Networks are not Diagrams!......Page 88 How Do Complex Structures Form?......Page 93 Biological Oscillators and Attractors......Page 96 Circadian Rhythm......Page 97 Cardiac Rhythm......Page 102 Gene Expression Patterns......Page 106 Synchronisation of Oscillators: Brainwaves......Page 108 Chance at the Heart of the Cell......Page 110 Conclusions......Page 112 The Medical Histology Class......Page 116 Cells as Carriages......Page 117 Bacteria......Page 121 Archaea......Page 125 Eukaryotes: The Largest Organisms but the Smallest Domain......Page 126 The Cell Cycle......Page 127 Meiosis......Page 131 RNA and Other Early Worlds?......Page 132 How Cells Form Tissues......Page 133 Tree, Networks or Rings of Life?......Page 134 The Death of Cells......Page 136 Conclusions......Page 137 Charles Darwin and his Predecessors......Page 140 Darwin on Lamarckism......Page 143 The Rise of Neo-Darwinism Leading to the Modern Synthesis......Page 145 Evolution and Genetics......Page 148 The Modern Synthesis......Page 149 Schrödinger and What is Life?......Page 153 Neo-Darwinism and the Central Dogma......Page 155 The Language of Neo-Darwinism......Page 157 The Language of Neo-Darwinism as a Whole......Page 169 Conclusions......Page 171 6 Biological Relativity......Page 179 A Personal Journey......Page 180 Ultimate Reductionism: Mathematics?......Page 182 Introduction to Spinoza......Page 183 Spinoza’s Way Out of the Cartesian Paradigm......Page 184 The Essence of Biological Relativity......Page 187 Conceptual and Empirical Interpretations......Page 190 Open and Closed Systems......Page 192 Why Spinoza’s Constraint is not Sufficient......Page 193 Forms of Causation......Page 207 Conclusions......Page 212 Pipes and Templates......Page 218 Summary of the Problem......Page 220 The Weismann Barrier is Relative, not Absolute......Page 222 Genetic Variation is not Random......Page 225 Misinterpretations of the Central Dogma......Page 228 Mobile Genetic Elements......Page 231 Natural Genetic Engineering: Genome Reorganisation......Page 232 Significance of Symbiogenesis and Co-operation......Page 235 Conclusions......Page 238 Epigenetics Viewed from Physiological High Ground......Page 245 Epigenetic and Other Lamarckian Inheritance......Page 247 Niche Construction and the Active Role of Organisms......Page 253 The Origin of Species?......Page 255 Isn’t a Lot of DNA ‘Selfish’, ‘Parasitic’?......Page 259 The Speed of Evolution......Page 260 A Biological Relativistic View of Evolution......Page 263 Conclusions......Page 268 9 The Relativity of Epistemology: The Meaning of It All......Page 278 Why? Questions and Goals......Page 279 The Third Way......Page 281 Science and Humanity......Page 282 Science and Common Sense......Page 283 Is Naive Theism the Only Alternative?......Page 285 Contextual Logic......Page 287 Selfish Genes and Altruism......Page 291 Relativity of Epistemology......Page 293 Ultimate Purpose?......Page 295 10 Postscript......Page 299 Glossary......Page 301 Index......Page 307