Signs Of Life: How Complexity Pervades Biology - Softcover

Sole, Ricard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0465019285 ISBN 13: 9780465019281

Publisher: Basic Books, 2002

Synopsis

Signs of Life applies the mathematics of order and disorder, of entropy, chance, and randomness, of chaos and nonlinear dynamics to the various mysteries of the living world at all levels. This book is an entirely new approach to understanding living systems and will help set the agenda for biology in the coming century.

About this title

Review

Deep down, we all know that living things are profoundly weird. Santa Fe Institute scientists Ricard Solé and Brian Goodwin show us the truth in Signs of Life: How Complexity Pervades Biology. Chaos theory and the life sciences are a natural combination but it's still a wonder how fresh and intuitive the material is in their able hands. Copiously illustrated with drawings, tables and photographs enriching the text, the book will appeal to all sophisticated readers with an interest in the larger themes of biology--evolution, development and inheritance are major players. The authors have carefully segregated the toughest math in sidebars, but the main body of text is still not for the fainthearted. Chaos and complexity is innately math-heavy, and hardcore math-phobes will have to make do with skimming; still, even the innumerate will find the prose charming and engaging:

The idea that a random event can change history has been a great source of inspiration for both scientists and writers alike. We live in a universe with strong laws and much contingency. In our search for the laws of complexity we often find islands of randomness in an ocean of regularity, like the island of trickery, home of games and gambling, found by the travellers in Gargantua and Pantagruel.

With writing like this interleaved between the tables and formulae, the reader finds it easier to stay on track and the rewards of improved understanding are exquisite. Sole and Goodwin nimbly present a necessarily complex subject to a wide audience; Signs of Life ought to become a classic among the scientifically literate. --Rob Lightner

Synopsis

This is a paperbound reprint of a 2000 book. The authors (whose affiliations are not stated) apply the mathematical tools of complexity theory to model biological processes in terms of complex dynamics from which characteristic patterns of order emerge. They examine genetic networks, chaos in brain function, emergent phenomenon of ant colonies, the

Edition details

• Publisher: Basic Books
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0465019285
• ISBN 13: 9780465019281
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 340