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.
Author(s): Denis Noble
Edition: Hardcover
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2017
Language: English
Pages: 300
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
