Principles Of Organization In Organisms

ISBN-13: 9780201587890 / Angielski / Miękka / 1992 / 471 str.

Arthur B. Baskin; Jay E. Mittenthal; Jay Mitthenthal

Opis

Based on a workshop held at the Santa Fe Institute in June, 1990, this book explores structure in organisms--both physical and dynamical--and presents the current status of the search for natural pathways, principles of organization, and the theory of design for organisms. Topics discussed include dynamical systems analysis; the pathways of evolution; development, physiology, and functional morphology; and the principles of dynamical change in connectivity within the networks of processes.The aim of the workshop was to seek principles of organization in organisms and a theory that could generate those principles, as Newtonian mechanics generates Kepler's laws of planetary motion. The object of the theory is to explain patterns of structure in living or past organisms, or patterns to be expected in future organisms. The book proposes principles of organization that are independent of time scale and level of organization, and that make predictions about structure without recourse to micro-level details. Among them are principles of coordination, evolution to the edge of chaos, the matching of processes to constraints, and the evolution of higher-level processes as a way to surmount resource limitations. These general principles, which may be characteristic of any evolving complex system, may then be used in conjunction with properties of the specific materials and processes in organisms to understand biological structure.

Spis treści

General Introduction -- Physiology -- Introduction -- The Flexible Dynamics of Biological Coordination: Living in the Niche Between Order and Disorder /C. G. DeGuzman and f. A. S. Kelso -- Biological Organization and Adaptation: Fractal Structure and Scaling Similarities /T. 1?. Nelson -- Cornmentary -- Physiology and Development -- Introduction -- Constancy and Variation in Developmental Mechanisms: An Example from Comparative Embryology /J. A. Bolker -- Heterochrony in Hydractiniid Hydroids: A Hypothesis /N. . Blacksione -- Adaptive Mechanisms that Accelerate Embryonic Develop- ment in Drosophila /T. L. Karr and J. E. Mittenilial -- General Principles ot Organization -- Introduction -- The Sciences of Complexity and “On ns of Order” /S. A. Kauffman -- Patterns of Structure and Their Evolution in the Organizae tion of Organisms: Modules, Matching, and Compaction -- J. E. Mittenthal, A. B. Baskin, and K E. Reinke -- Reliability of Networks of Genes /B. Clarke and J. E. Mittenthal -- Exploring the Role of Finiteness in the Emergence of Structure /A. B. Baskin, R. F. Reinke, and J. E. Mittenthal -- Commentary -- General Conclusions Appendix -- Dynamic Pattern Formation: A Primer /J. A. S. Kelso, M. Ding, and G. Schoner -- Index.

O autorze

Jay E. Mittenthal