The Dynamic Architecture of a Developing Organism: An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Development of Organisms - Hardcover

Beloussov, L.V.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0792350448 ISBN 13: 9780792350446

Publisher: Springer, 1998

Synopsis

For anybody capable of an emotional response to it, any view of a developing organism should give birth to a feeling of amazement and even admiration, whether this development is seen directly, or in the form of a time lapse film, or even if mentally reconstructed from a series of static images. We ask ourselves how such seemingly primitive eggs or pieces of tissue, without any obvious intervention from outside, so regularly transform themselves into precisely constructed adult organisms. If we try to formulate what amazes us most of all about development, the answer will probably be that it is the internal capacity of developing organisms themselves to create new structures. How, then, can we satisfy our amazement in ways that are more or less reasonable, as well as scientifically valuable? This depends, first of all, on what position we choose to regard embryonic development as occupying among other structure creating processes, even including human activities. On the one hand, one might regard the development of organisms as a highly specialized class of processes, unique to themselves and alien to the general laws of nature, or at least not derivable from them and more akin to the deliberate acts of our own human behaviour. In that case our task would become reduced to a search for some specific 'instructions' for each next member of such a class. Whether in an overt or hidden form, some such ideology seems to dominate in present day developmental biology.

About this title

Synopsis

This book is the first comprehensive attempt to consider the development of organisms as a multi-level feedback-linked self-organizing process. Accordingly, the data related to morphogenetic cell activities and to the development of entire organisms are reconsidered and reformulated in terms of theories of symmetry and self-organization, which is described in non-specialist terms. An important role for biomechanical feedback is emphasized. Two opposing approaches to development are outlined, a 'genocentric' one and a 'morphocentric' one, and the possibility of their combination is discussed. Unlike other books recently published in biotheoretical and biomathematical fields, this book is centered around developmental problems. This title is intended for students and researchers in biology, biomechanics and mathematical modelling.

Edition details

• Publisher: Springer
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0792350448
• ISBN 13: 9780792350446
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 246