Science & Soul: Book Review: Signs of Life – How Complexity Pervades Biology
February 14, 2010 by scienceguy288
Richard Sole and Brian Goodwin compiled a book detailing the applications and seemingly inescapable presence of complex systems in the biological sciences in their pioneering book Signs of Life: How Complexity Pervades Biology. Now let me begin by saying that this is not light reading and probably not for everyone. That is not to say you need a science background to understand this book. The authors did a wonderful job of separating the technical science and math from the main themes of the book and use a multitude of pictures, diagrams, graphs, charts, and figures to detail their thesis.
Signs of Life
Scientists have long reconstructed systems and analyzed their individual parts to understand how they fit together with regards to the whole. It has worked wonderfully for some time. However, now scientists are realizing that in nearly every field of biology from cellular and molecular biology to ecology and physiology that analyzing the parts of the whole simply does not yield predictable behavior. Why do certain stem cells become skin cells and others become neurons if they have the same genome? Why do some creatures seem to hold up an entire ecosystem if only a small percentage of animals actually eat these species? Sole and Goodwin begin by explaining how nonlinear interactions between individuals form complex systems. This understanding of complex systems and the emergent behavior, that is, behavior that cannot be performed by individual units but can be performed by the system as a whole, can offer us novel ways of approaching these deep problems of biology. Sole and Goodwin show us how issues once considered inexplicable, are now being unraveled and explained with complex systems biology.
Grade: A-
Posted in science | Tagged academia, africa, Agent Orange, Agribusiness, agriculture, Airplane, Amazon, Ammunition, and economics, Animal, animal behavior, Animal Vegetable Miracle, Animals, anthropology, Archeology, Arlo Guthrie, Astronomy, Athletics, Atoms, australia, Avatar, Barbara Kingsolver, Beef, biochemistry, biodiversity, Bioengineering, Biological Systems, biology, Biotech, Biotechnology, bioterrorism, birds, Blue Tongued Skink, Boat, Boating, Book, books, Born to Run, Bosch, Botany, Brazil, Brian Goodwin, bugs, Business, Calvin and Hobbes, Cancer, Candiru, Candiru asu, captive breeding, Carbion dioxide, cartoon, Catfish, Cells, Cellular Automata, Change, chaos, chaos theory, chemicals, chemistry, Christopher McDougal, Climate Change, Climategate, climbing, companies, complex, Complex Systems, Conservation, Consumerism, Cooking, Copenhagen, Copenhagen Summit, Copper Canyon, Corn, corn fed, Corporate Ethics, Corporations, cows, Creatures, crime, Daniel Quinn, Darwin, DDT, Deforestation, desertification, Disaster, disease, DNA, Doctors, Domestication, Earthquake, Eat, ecological engineering, ecology, Economics, economy, emergent behavior, Endangered, Engineering, environment, Environmental destruction, Environmental Science, Environmental Studies, environmentalism, environmentalist, Eric Schlosser, erosion, ethanol, Ethics, Ethics. Bioethics, europe, evolution, evolutionary biology, Extinction, Factory Farming, factory farms, Farmer's Markets, farming, Farms, Fast Food Nation, fertilizer, Fetilizer, Fish, Fishing, Fitness, Food, Foreign, Frances Moore Lappe, Fresh water, Future, Genes, genetics, Global, Global Warming, God, Gorilla, Government, grass fed, Guns, Haber, habitat loss, Haldron Collider, Harrison Ford, Health, herbicides, Herpatology, hiking, History, Homo Sapien, human, Humanity, Humans, Hunting, Ictheology, Imports, Indian Jones, Indians, indonesia, Insects, Invasive Species, Ishmael, java, Local, Local food, Manifestos on the Future of Food and Seed, Marathon, Mars, Meat, medicine, mexico, Michael Pollan, Miracle, Modelling, molecular genetics, molecules, Monsanto, Music, NASA, Native Americans, Nature, Networks, neurobiology, nitrates, Nobel, Nobel Prize, obama, Ocean, Opinion, Organic, Ornithology, Pacific, Paleontology, park, Pesticides, Philosophy, Photography, Physics, Politics, Pollan, Population, Poverty, Prions, Probability, Proteins, Race, Rainforest, Raramuri, Red Cross, Reptile, Restaurant, Richard Sole, Ring of Fire, river, Run, Running, science, Scientists, Seed, Service, Shark, Shopping, Snake, social justice, Socialism, Sociology, Soul, Space, Species, Spirituality, Sports, Stars, Story of Stuff, Sweden, System, Systems, systems biology, Tarahumara, Tasmanian Devils, Technology, Telescope, terrorism, The Omnivore's Dilemma, trafficking, Trail, travel, United Nations, Vandana Shiva, Vegetable, War, Warbler, weapons, weeds, Wildlife, Wolves, Writing, zoology, Zoos | 4 Comments
It’s amazing ow much there is to learn about the natural world when we don’t let arrogance get in our way.
One thing is becoming very clear to me: there is nothing in this world that is unimportant. We just choose to ignore those parts of life/world/nature that we label “unimportant”, often just because we don’t understand how if fits into the whole system. You are right “arrogance” is the word.
Unfortunately, the people who should read this (to LEARN something besides a very skewed version of the bible from their dominionist preacher) won’t read it.
And it’s got a cool cover! Nice diatoms.
This book looks so interesting. I will see if the library can get it for me.
Sherry