Thinking About Biology

No science has ever been done without an indissoluble link between theory and fact: facts are coloured by the theoretical spectacles on puts on, just as much as theory is shaped by the results of empirical observation. Theoretical biology is a broad and rapidly growing field where this link is actually explored with passion and discipline. The chapters of this book have been chosen to give the student of theoretical biology the flavour of current exciting research in the field. The eleven chapters are divided into three broad sections: the emergence of life, the development of the individual, and the study of the interaction between individuals and species.

Table of Contents:
* Thinking About Biology: An Introductory Essay Winfred D. Stein and Francisco J. Varela The Emergence of Life * Defining the Transition to Life: Self Replicating Bounded Structures and Chemical Autopoiesis Pier Luigi Luisi * The Organism as a Dynamical System Peter T. Saunders * Designing Bacteria Jay E. Mittenthal, Bertrand Clarke, and Mark Levinthal * Structural Patterns in Macromolecules G. Cocho, F. Lara-Ochoa, M.A. Jimenez-Montao, and J.L. Ruis Development and the Individual: Processes of Identity * Development as a Robust Natural Process Brian Goodwin * Generation of Morpololgical Patterns: Mechanical Ways to Create Regular Structures in Embryonic Development L.V. Beloussov * Gastrulation and the Evolution of Development Lewis Wolpert * Biological Organization, Coherence, and Light Emission from Living Organisms Mae-Wan Ho and Fritz-Albert Popp * What is the Immune Network For? Francisco J. Varela, Antonio Coutinho, and John Stewart * Randomness and Pattern Scale in the Immune Network: A Cellular Automata Approach Rob J. de Boer, Jan D. van der Laan, and Pauline Hogeweg Species and Societies: Communication Among Multiple Agents * Requirements for Evolvability in Complex Systems: Orderly Dynamics and Frozen Components Stuart A. Kauffman * Modeling the Behavior of Ant Colonies as an Emergent Property of a System of Ant-Ant Interactions L.E.H. Trainor

About the Author :
Wilfred Stein is a professor in the Department of Biophysics at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He has worked extensively in the United States and the United Kingdom, most recently at the National Institutes of Health. His research interests are quite broad, including areas of biology such as membrane transport, models of cancer, and patterns of limb development. Francisco J. Varela is the director of research at the National centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris, France. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University, and has worked extensively in the United States, South America, and Europe. In 1985 he was the recipient of the Interamerican Science Prize for Biological Sciences. His research interest centre around neural and immune networks, and global properties of biological organization. Wilfred Stein is a professor in the Department of Biophysics at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He has worked extensively in the United States and the United Kingdom, most recently at the National Institutes of Health. His research interests are quite broad, including areas of biology such as membrane transport, models of cancer, and patterns of limb development. Francisco J. Varela is the director of research at the National centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris, France. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University, and has worked extensively in the United States, South America, and Europe. In 1985 he was the recipient of the Interamerican Science Prize for Biological Sciences. His research interest centre around neural and immune networks, and global properties of biological organization.