Sketching Theoretical Biology

Sketching Theoretical Biology PDF Author: Wilhelmina A. Leigh
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351490834
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
The purpose of this volume is to bring together a number of elements that would be useful in the construction of a coherent and comprehensive theory of biology. Based on the assumption that living systems represent some kind of "organized complexity," the collection discusses meaningful ways of formulating two basic questions: what is the nature of this complexity; and, what are the principles of its organization? The question always asked about biological theory is whether or not it constitutes useful scientific theory. Because many useful biological theories cannot yet be made explicit in terms of conventional physics, Sketching Theoretical Biology illustrates the types of questions in biology that correspond to the types of issues discussed in theoretical physics. This book, originally published in 1969, centers around a vigorous debate on the role played by metaphysical beliefs in determining scientific attitudes. The discussion covers heredity and evolution, cognitive processes and control processes, general property of hierarchies, and the current status of neo-Darwinism. Contributors include theoretical physicists, philosophers, neuroscientists, theoretical chemists, computer scientists, chemical engineers, geneticists and molecular biologists.

Sketching Theoretical Biology

Sketching Theoretical Biology PDF Author: Wilhelmina A. Leigh
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351490834
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
The purpose of this volume is to bring together a number of elements that would be useful in the construction of a coherent and comprehensive theory of biology. Based on the assumption that living systems represent some kind of "organized complexity," the collection discusses meaningful ways of formulating two basic questions: what is the nature of this complexity; and, what are the principles of its organization? The question always asked about biological theory is whether or not it constitutes useful scientific theory. Because many useful biological theories cannot yet be made explicit in terms of conventional physics, Sketching Theoretical Biology illustrates the types of questions in biology that correspond to the types of issues discussed in theoretical physics. This book, originally published in 1969, centers around a vigorous debate on the role played by metaphysical beliefs in determining scientific attitudes. The discussion covers heredity and evolution, cognitive processes and control processes, general property of hierarchies, and the current status of neo-Darwinism. Contributors include theoretical physicists, philosophers, neuroscientists, theoretical chemists, computer scientists, chemical engineers, geneticists and molecular biologists.

Theoretical Biology 2

Theoretical Biology 2 PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Progress in Theoretical Biology

Progress in Theoretical Biology PDF Author: Fred M. Snell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biology
Languages : en
Pages : 378

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Sketching Theoretical Biology

Sketching Theoretical Biology PDF Author: C. H. Waddington
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 9780202363196
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 351

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Book Description
The purpose of this volume is to bring together a number of elements that would be useful in the construction of a coherent and comprehensive theory of biology. Based on the assumption that living systems represent some kind of "organized complexity," the collection discusses meaningful ways of formulating two basic questions: what is the nature of this complexity; and, what are the principles of its organization? The question always asked about biological theory is whether or not it constitutes useful scientific theory. Because many useful biological theories cannot yet be made explicit in terms of conventional physics, Sketching Theoretical Biology illustrates the types of questions in biology that correspond to the types of issues discussed in theoretical physics. This book, originally published in 1969, centers around a vigorous debate on the role played by metaphysical beliefs in determining scientific attitudes. The discussion covers heredity and evolution, cognitive processes and control processes, general property of hierarchies, and the current status of neo-Darwinism. Contributors include theoretical physicists, philosophers, neuroscientists, theoretical chemists, computer scientists, chemical engineers, geneticists and molecular biologists.

Interdisciplinary Research and Applications in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, and Environmental Sciences

Interdisciplinary Research and Applications in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, and Environmental Sciences PDF Author: Liu, Limin Angela
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 1609600665
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
"This book presents cutting-edge research in the field of computational and systems biology, presenting studies ranging from the atomic/molecular level to the genomic level and covering a wide spectrum of important biological problems and applications"--Provided by publisher.

The Life Organic

The Life Organic PDF Author: Erik L. Peterson
Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
ISBN: 082298198X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
As scientists debated the nature of life in the nineteenth century, two theories predominated: vitalism, which suggested that living things contained a “vital spark,” and mechanism, the idea that animals and humans differed from nonliving things only in their degree of complexity. Erik Peterson tells the forgotten story of the pursuit of a “third way’ in biology, known by many names, including “the organic philosophy,” which gave rise to C. H. Waddington’s work in the subfield of epigenetics: an alternative to standard genetics and evolutionary biology that captured the attention of notable scientists from Francis Crick to Stephen Jay Gould. The Life Organic chronicles the influential biologists, mathematicians, philosophers, and biochemists from both sides of the Atlantic who formed Joseph Needham’s Theoretical Biology Club, defined and refined “third way” thinking through the 1930s, and laid the groundwork for some of the most cutting-edge achievements in biology today. By tracing the persistence of organicism into the twenty-first century, this book also raises significant questions about how we should model the development of the discipline of biology going forward.

Current Themes in Theoretical Biology

Current Themes in Theoretical Biology PDF Author: Thomas A.C. Reydon
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1402029047
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 310

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Book Description
The present volume originated in 2001 when we, together with our publishing editors at (then) Kluwer Academic Publishers, realized that the th following year the 50 volume of our journal Acta Biotheoretica would see the light. We felt that this milestone should not pass unnoticed and that the appropriate way to mark it would be the publication of a special volume of papers on theoretical biology. While editing this book during 2003 and early 2004, we realized that another milestone was not far off: in 2005 it will be 70 years ago that the journal was founded. We hope that the book lying before you will serve well to mark both events. The papers collected here have been written on invitation by representatives of the theoretical biology community in The Netherlands. They are intended to reflect the entire spectrum of topics on which Acta Biotheoretica publishes, ranging from philosophy of biology on one end to mathematical biology on the other. All chapters (except our own introductory one) have been peer reviewed according to the standards that are maintained with respect to regular submissions to Acta Biotheoretica.

Syllabus of Lectures in Theoretical Biology

Syllabus of Lectures in Theoretical Biology PDF Author: Robert Payne Bigelow
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biology
Languages : en
Pages : 62

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Theoretical Biology and Complexity

Theoretical Biology and Complexity PDF Author: Robert J. Rosen
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 1483272346
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222

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Book Description
Theoretical Biology and Complexity: Three Essays on the Natural Philosophy of Complex Systems is made up of three short essays—each separately conceived and written, each with distinct thrusts and emphases, but nevertheless closely related in substance and spirit. All three spring from a common concern: to grasp and comprehend the material basis of living systems. The first essay is about the interaction between particles and the consequent observable manifestations. It casts the analysis of the measurement process into an elegant dualism relating modes of description, and explores the consequences of this dualism for what may be called classical physics. The second essay explores the deeper consequences of representing the properties of natural systems through states built up out of observable quantities, and the dynamics that such systems impose on each other through interactions. The final essay argues that traditional modes of system representation, involving fixed sets of states together with imposed dynamical laws, strictly pertains only to an extremely limited class of systems (called simple systems or mechanisms). Systems not in this class are called “complex, and these can only be in some sense approximated, locally and temporally, by simple ones. Such a radical alteration of viewpoint leads to a large number of concrete, practical consequences, some of which are described in the essay.

Towards a Theoretical Biology: Sketches

Towards a Theoretical Biology: Sketches PDF Author: Conrad Hal Waddington
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biology
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description