Theoretical Biology And Complexity

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.

This beautifully crafted book collects images, which were created during the process of research in all fields of theoretical biology. Data analysis, numerical treatment of a model, or simulation results yield stunning images, which represent pieces of art just by themselves. The approach of the book is to present for each piece of visualization a lucid synopsis of the scientific background as well as an outline of the artistic vision.

How does complexity of development, structure, and function of organisms emerge from the relative simplicity of biochemistry and genetics? In Theoretical Biology, Brian Goodwin and Peter Saunders bring together a distinguished group of contributors to provide a broad-based yet coherent inquiry into biological processes. In the spirit of C. H. Waddington's Towards a Theoretical Biology, the authors seek to establish the generative principles that apply throughout the field of biology to give a unifying logical structure to diverse empirical phenomena. Major topics include self-organization in complex systems; order and adaptability in genetic networks; development and evolution; and the relevance of physics and mathematics to biology.

Complexity, Analysis and Control of Singular Biological Systems follows the control of real-world biological systems at both ecological and phyisological levels concentrating on the application of now-extensively-investigated singular system theory. Much effort has recently been dedicated to the modelling and analysis of developing bioeconomic systems and the text establishes singular examples of these, showing how proper control can help to maintain sustainable economic development of biological resources. The book begins from the essentials of singular systems theory and bifurcations before tackling the use of various forms of control in singular biological systems using examples including predator-prey relationships and viral vaccination and quarantine control. Researchers and graduate students studying the control of complex biological systems are shown how a variety of methods can be brought to bear and practitioners working with the economics of biological systems and their control will also find the monograph illuminating.

The book offers new concepts and ideas that broaden reader’s perception of modern science. Internationally established experts present the inspiring new science of complexity, which discovers new general laws covering wide range of science areas. The book offers a broader view on complexity based on the expertise of the related areas of chemistry, biochemistry, biology, ecology, and physics. Contains methodologies for assessing the complexity of systems that can be directly applied to proteomics and genomics, and network analysis in biology, medicine, and ecology.

This book discusses the emergence of life, the development of the individual, and the study of the interaction between individuals and species. It gives the student of theoretical biology some idea of the flavor of current research in the field.

In May 1984 the Swedish Council for Scientific Research convened a small group of investigators at the scientific research station at Abisko, Sweden, for the purpose of examining various conceptual and mathematical views of the evolution of complex systems. The stated theme of the meeting was deliberately kept vague, with only the purpose of discussing alternative mathematically based approaches to the modeling of evolving processes being given as a guideline to the participants. In order to limit the scope to some degree, it was decided to emphasize living rather than nonliving processes and to invite participants from a range of disciplinary specialities spanning the spectrum from pure and applied mathematics to geography and analytic philosophy. The results of the meeting were quite extraordinary; while there was no intent to focus the papers and discussion into predefined channels, an immediate self-organizing effect took place and the deliberations quickly oriented themselves into three main streams: conceptual and formal structures for characterizing sys tem complexity; evolutionary processes in biology and ecology; the emergence of complexity through evolution in natural lan guages. The chapters presented in this volume are not the proceed ings of the meeting. Following the meeting, the organizers felt that the ideas and spirit of the gathering should be preserved in some written form, so the participants were each requested to produce a chapter, explicating the views they presented at Abisko, written specifically for this volume. The results of this exercise form the volume you hold in your hand.

This book was originally written in 1969 by Berkeley mathematician John Rhodes. It is the founding work in what is now called algebraic engineering, an emerging field created by using the unifying scheme of finite state machine models and their complexity to tie together many fields: finite group theory, semigroup theory, automata and sequential machine theory, finite phase space physics, metabolic and evolutionary biology, epistemology, mathematical theory of psychoanalysis, philosophy, and game theory. The author thus introduced a completely original algebraic approach to complexity and the understanding of finite systems. The unpublished manuscript, often referred to as "The Wild Book," became an underground classic, continually requested in manuscript form, and read by many leading researchers in mathematics, complex systems, artificial intelligence, and systems biology. Yet it has never been available in print until now. This first published edition has been edited and updated by Chrystopher Nehaniv for the 21st century. Its novel and rigorous development of the mathematical theory of complexity via algebraic automata theory reveals deep and unexpected connections between algebra (semigroups) and areas of science and engineering. Co-founded by John Rhodes and Kenneth Krohn in 1962, algebraic automata theory has grown into a vibrant area of research, including the complexity of automata, and semigroups and machines from an algebraic viewpoint, and which also touches on infinite groups, and other areas of algebra. This book sets the stage for the application of algebraic automata theory to areas outside mathematics. The material and references have been brought up to date bythe editor as much as possible, yet the book retains its distinct character and the bold yet rigorous style of the author. Included are treatments of topics such as models of time as algebra via semigroup theory; evolution-complexity relations applicable to both ontogeny and evolution; an approach to classification of biological reactions and pathways; the relationships among coordinate systems, symmetry, and conservation principles in physics; discussion of "punctuated equilibrium" (prior to Stephen Jay Gould); games; and applications to psychology, psychoanalysis, epistemology, and the purpose of life. The approach and contents will be of interest to a variety of researchers and students in algebra as well as to the diverse, growing areas of applications of algebra in science and engineering. Moreover, many parts of the book will be intelligible to non-mathematicians, including students and experts from diverse backgrounds.