Emergence And Modularity In Life Sciences

Author : Lars H. Wegner,Ulrich Lüttge
Publisher : Springer
Page : 279 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2019-02-12
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783030061289

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Emergence and Modularity in Life Sciences by Lars H. Wegner,Ulrich Lüttge Pdf

This book focuses on modules and emergence with self-organization in the life sciences. As Aristotle observed so long ago, the whole is more than the sum of its parts. However, contemporary science is dominated by reductionist concepts and tends to neglect the non-reproducible features of complex systems, which emerge from the interaction of the smaller units they are composed of. The book is divided into three major parts; the essays in part A highlight the conceptual basis of emergence, linking it to the philosophy of science, systems biology and sustainability. This is subsequently exemplified in part B by applying the concept of emergence to various biological disciplines, such as genetics, developmental biology, neurobiology, plant physiology and ecology. New aspects of emergence come into play when biology meets the technical sciences, as revealed in a chapter on bionics. In turn, part C adopts a broader view, revealing how the organization of life follows a hierarchical order in terms of scalar dimensions, ranging from the molecular level to the entire biosphere. The idea that life is primarily and exclusively shaped by processes at the molecular level (and, in particular, by the information encoded in the genome) is refuted; rather, there is no hierarchy with respect to the level of causation in the cross-talk between the levels. In the last two chapters, the evolutionary trend toward ever-increasing complexity in living systems is interpreted in terms of the Gaia hypothesis sensu Lovelock: the entire biosphere is viewed as a functional unit (or ‘holobiont-like system’) organized to develop and sustain life on Earth.

Author : Lars Wegner,Ulrich Lüttge
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2019
Category : NATURE
ISBN : 3030061299

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Emergence and Modularity in Life Sciences by Lars Wegner,Ulrich Lüttge Pdf

This book focuses on modules and emergence with self-organization in the life sciences. As Aristotle observed so long ago, the whole is more than the sum of its parts. However, contemporary science is dominated by reductionist concepts and tends to neglect the non-reproducible features of complex systems, which emerge from the interaction of the smaller units they are composed of. The book is divided into three major parts; the essays in part A highlight the conceptual basis of emergence, linking it to the philosophy of science, systems biology and sustainability. This is subsequently exemplified in part B by applying the concept of emergence to various biological disciplines, such as genetics, developmental biology, neurobiology, plant physiology and ecology. New aspects of emergence come into play when biology meets the technical sciences, as revealed in a chapter on bionics. In turn, part C adopts a broader view, revealing how the organization of life follows a hierarchical order in terms of scalar dimensions, ranging from the molecular level to the entire biosphere. The idea that life is primarily and exclusively shaped by processes at the molecular level (and, in particular, by the information encoded in the genome) is refuted; rather, there is no hierarchy with respect to the level of causation in the cross-talk between the levels. In the last two chapters, the evolutionary trend toward ever-increasing complexity in living systems is interpreted in terms of the Gaia hypothesis sensu Lovelock: the entire biosphere is viewed as a functional unit (or ‘holobiont-like system’) organized to develop and sustain life on Earth.

Author : Ulrich Lüttge,Francisco M. Cánovas,María-Carmen Risueño,Christoph Leuschner,Hans Pretzsch
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 410 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2022-10-31
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783031127823

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Progress in Botany Vol. 83 by Ulrich Lüttge,Francisco M. Cánovas,María-Carmen Risueño,Christoph Leuschner,Hans Pretzsch Pdf

With one volume each year, this series keeps scientists and advanced students informed of the latest developments and results in all areas of the plant sciences. This latest volume includes reviews on plant physiology, biochemistry, genetics and genomics, forests, and ecosystems.

Author : Fabio Rubio Scarano
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 173 pages
File Size : 45,8 Mb
Release : 2024-05-23
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9783031518416

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Regenerative Dialogues for Sustainable Futures by Fabio Rubio Scarano Pdf

Author : Scott Kellogg
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 257 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2021-09-22
Category : Nature
ISBN : 9781000450675

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Urban Ecosystem Justice by Scott Kellogg Pdf

Merging together the fields of urban ecology, environmental justice, and urban environmental education, Urban Ecosystem Justice promotes building fair, accessible, and mutually beneficial relationships between citizens and the soils, water, atmospheres, and biodiversity in their cities. This book provides a framework for re-centering issues of justice and fairness in sustainability discourse while challenging the profound ecological alienation experienced by urban residents. While the urban sustainability movement has had many successes in the past few decades, there remain areas for it to grow. For one, the benefits of sustainability have disproportionately benefited wealthier city residents, with concerns over equity, justice, and social sustainability frequently taking a back seat to economic and environmental considerations. Additionally, many city dwellers remain estranged from and unfamiliar with ecological processes, with urban environments often thought of as existing outside of nature or as hopelessly degraded. Through a citizen-centered lens, the book offers a guide to reconciling these issues by demonstrating how questions of equity, access, and justice apply to the biophysical dimensions of the urban ecosystem: soil, water, air, waste, and biodiversity. Drawing heavily from the fields of urban ecology, environmental justice, and ecological design, this book lays out a science of cities for people: a pedagogical platform that can be used to promote ecological literacy in underrepresented urban communities through affordable and decentralized means. This book provides both a theoretical and practical field guide to students and researchers of urban sustainability, city planners, architects, policymakers, and activists wishing to develop reciprocal relationships with urban ecologies.

Author : Mario Bunge
Publisher : University of Toronto Press
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 44,7 Mb
Release : 2015-01-15
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9781442621961

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Emergence and Convergence by Mario Bunge Pdf

Two problems continually arise in the sciences and humanities, according to Mario Bunge: parts and wholes and the origin of novelty. In Emergence and Convergence, he works to address these problems, as well as that of systems and their emergent properties, as exemplified by the synthesis of molecules, the creation of ideas, and social inventions. Along the way, Bunge examines further topical problems, such as the search for the mechanisms underlying observable facts, the limitations of both individualism and holism, the reach of reduction, the abuses of Darwinism, the rational choice-hermeneutics feud, the modularity of the brain vs. the unity of the mind, the cluster of concepts around 'maybe,' the uselessness of many-worlds metaphysics and semantics, the hazards posed by Bayesianism, the nature of partial truth, the obstacles to correct medical diagnosis, and the formal conditions for the emergence of a cross-discipline. Bunge is not interested in idle fantasies, but about many of the problems that occur in any discipline that studies reality or ways to control it. His work is about the merger of initially independent lines of inquiry, such as developmental evolutionary biology, cognitive neuroscience, and socio-economics. Bunge proposes a clear definition of the concept of emergence to replace that of supervenience and clarifies the notions of system, real possibility, inverse problem, interdiscipline, and partial truth that occur in all fields.

Author : Francisco M. Cánovas,Ulrich Lüttge,María-Carmen Risueño,Hans Pretzsch
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 466 pages
File Size : 43,9 Mb
Release : 2020-12-31
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783030686208

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Progress in Botany Vol. 82 by Francisco M. Cánovas,Ulrich Lüttge,María-Carmen Risueño,Hans Pretzsch Pdf

With one volume each year, this series keeps scientists and advanced students informed of the latest developments and results in all areas of the plant sciences. This latest volume includes reviews on plant physiology, biochemistry, genetics and genomics, forests, and ecosystems.

Author : Eric Smith,Harold J. Morowitz
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 703 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2016-03-31
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781107121881

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The Origin and Nature of Life on Earth by Eric Smith,Harold J. Morowitz Pdf

Uniting the foundations of physics and biology, this groundbreaking multidisciplinary and integrative book explores life as a planetary process.

Author : Ulrich Lüttge,Francisco M. Cánovas,Rainer Matyssek
Publisher : Springer
Page : 435 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2016-05-27
Category : Science
ISBN : 9783319256887

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Progress in Botany 77 by Ulrich Lüttge,Francisco M. Cánovas,Rainer Matyssek Pdf

With one volume each year, this series keeps scientists and advanced students informed of the latest developments and results in all areas of the plant sciences. The present volume includes reviews on plant genetics, physiology, ecology, and evolution.

Author : Everett C. Olson,Robert L. Miller
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 380 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 1999-10
Category : Science
ISBN : 0226629058

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Morphological Integration by Everett C. Olson,Robert L. Miller Pdf

Despite recent advances in genetics, development, anatomy, systematics, and morphometrics, the synthesis of ideas and research agenda put forth in the classic Morphological Integration remains remarkably fresh, timely, and relevant. Pioneers in reexamining morphology, Everett Olson and Robert Miller were among the first to explore the concept of the integrated organism in both living and extinct populations. In a new foreword and afterword, biologists Barry Chernoff and Paul Magwene summarize the landmark achievements made by Olson and Miller and bring matters discussed in the book up to date, suggest new methods, and accentuate the importance of continued research in morphological integration. Everett C. Olson was a professor at the University of Chicago and at the University of California, Los Angeles. He was a former president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. Robert L. Miller was associate professor of geology at the University of Chicago, associate scientist in marine geology at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and a member of the board of editors of the Journal of Geology.

Author : Marta Bertolaso,Silvia Caianiello,Emanuele Serrelli
Publisher : Springer
Page : 258 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2019-01-04
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9783030011987

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Biological Robustness by Marta Bertolaso,Silvia Caianiello,Emanuele Serrelli Pdf

This volume reviews examples and notions of robustness at several levels of biological organization. It tackles many philosophical and conceptual issues and casts an outlook on the future challenges of robustness studies in the context of a practice-oriented philosophy of science. The focus of discussion is on concrete case studies. These highlight the necessity of a level-dependent description of robust biological behaviors.Experts from the neurosciences, biochemistry, ecology, biology, and the history and the philosophy of life sciences provide a multiplex perspective on the topic. Contributions span from protein folding, to cell-level robustness, to organismal and developmental robustness, to sensorimotor systems, up to the robustness of ecological systems.Several chapters detail neurobiological case-studies. The brain, the poster child of plasticity in biology, offers multiple examples of robustness. Neurobiology explores the importance of temporal organization and multiscalarity in making this robustness-with-plasticity possible. The discussion also includes structures well beyond the brain, such as muscles and the complex feedback loops involved in the peculiar robustness of music perception. Overall, the volume grounds general reflections upon concrete case studies, opening to all the life sciences but also to non-biological and bio-inspired fields such as post-modern engineering. It will appeal to researchers, students, as well as non-expert readers.

Author : Remy Lestienne,Paul Harris
Publisher : World Scientific
Page : 297 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2023-06-22
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781800613850

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Time And Science - Volume 2: Life Sciences by Remy Lestienne,Paul Harris Pdf

Life and Time are very closely linked, because life needs the patience of eons to emerge and evolve, and also due to the precision timing of neural networks in the perception of the world, encoding information, and performing actions. A dozen renowned biologists and neuroscientists collaborate in this volume to explore the various facets of timing in the living world. The temporal programming of the activity of the genetic code controls the essential mechanisms of individual development from zygote to adult, while evolution uses the succession of generations to accomplish its work. For its part, the brain accomplishes the miracle of justifying presentism and reconstructing the continuity of present time from the fragmented data accessible to the senses, as well as measuring durations and dating events. To this end, the brain uses a multilevel temporal coding to transport and decode sensory information and prepare motor responses. It is only gradually that we have discovered the temporal precision of the mechanisms involved, of the order of a few milliseconds or less, for the adjustment of neural networks, or the synaptic plasticity used for memory formation. Today, the perfection of natural neural networks, the energy saving use of spikes of electrical impulses to categorize the sensory environment and to guess its probable future is an example to the modelers and engineers of artificial intelligence.

Author : T. S. Kemp
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 215 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2016
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780226335957

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The Origin of Higher Taxa by T. S. Kemp Pdf

This text discusses whether the origin of radically new kinds of organisms - new higher taxa - are the result of normal Darwinian evolution proceeding, or whether unusual genetic processes and/or special environmental circumstances are necessary.

Author : Werner Callebaut,Diego Rasskin-Gutman
Publisher : MIT Press
Page : 480 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2005
Category : Computers
ISBN : 0262033267

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Modularity by Werner Callebaut,Diego Rasskin-Gutman Pdf

Modularity—the attempt to understand systems as integrations of partially independent and interacting units—is today a dominant theme in the life sciences, cognitive science, and computer science. The concept goes back at least implicitly to the Scientific (or Copernican) Revolution, and can be found behind later theories of phrenology, physiology, and genetics; moreover, art, engineering, and mathematics rely on modular design principles. This collection broadens the scientific discussion of modularity by bringing together experts from a variety of disciplines, including artificial life, cognitive science, economics, evolutionary computation, developmental and evolutionary biology, linguistics, mathematics, morphology, paleontology, physics, theoretical chemistry, philosophy, and the arts. The contributors debate and compare the uses of modularity, discussing the different disciplinary contexts of "modular thinking" in general (including hierarchical organization, near-decomposability, quasi-independence, and recursion) or of more specialized concepts (including character complex, gene family, encapsulation, and mosaic evolution); what modules are, why and how they develop and evolve, and the implication for the research agenda in the disciplines involved; and how to bring about useful cross-disciplinary knowledge transfer on the topic. The book includes a foreword by the late Herbert A. Simon addressing the role of near-decomposability in understanding complex systems. Contributors: Lee Altenberg, Lauren W. Ancel-Meyers, Carl Anderson, Robert B. Brandon, Angela D. Buscalioni, Raffaele Calabretta, Werner Callebaut, Anne De Joan, Rafael Delgado-Buscalioni, Gunther J. Eble, Walter Fontana, Fernand Gobet, Alicia de la Iglesia, Slavik V. Jablan, Luigi Marengo, Daniel W. McShea, Jason Mezey, D. Kimbrough Oller, Domenico Parisi, Corrado Pasquali, Diego Rasskin-Gutman, Gerhard Schlosser, Herbert A. Simon, Roger D. K. Thomas, Marco Valente, Boris M. Velichkovsky, Gunter P. Wagner, Rasmus G. Winter Vienna Series in Theoretical Biology

Author : Anonim
Publisher : Academic Press
Page : 728 pages
File Size : 51,6 Mb
Release : 2022-03-23
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780128201602

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Emerging Model Systems in Developmental Biology by Anonim Pdf

An ever-growing roster of model organisms is a hallmark of 21st century Developmental Biology. Emerging model organisms are well suited to asking some fascinating and important questions that cannot be addressed using established model systems. And new methods are increasingly facilitating the adoption of new research organisms in laboratories. This volume is written by some of the scientists who have played pivotal roles in developing new models or in significantly advancing tools in emerging systems. Presents some of the most interesting additions to the core set of model organisms Contains contributions from people who have developed new model systems or advanced tools Includes personal stories about how and why model systems were developed