Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 4
Biology
4.1 The Simpson Thesis
As already alluded to in Preface , the American paleontologist Gaylord Simpson
(1964) made a statement to the effect that
Physicists study the principles that apply to all phenomena; biologists study phenomena to
which all principles apply.
(4.1)
In view of its potential importance in differentiating physics and biology ,we
may refer to Statement 4.1 as the “Simpson conjecture , ” the “Simpson thesis , or the
“Simpson doctrine . ” Consistent with this thesis, the general theory of the living cell
presented in this topic embodies a large number of concepts, laws, and principles
drawn from many disciplines, including physics, chemistry, biology, engineering,
mathematics, computer science, linguistics, and philosophy (Ji 1997a). It would not
be surprising if it turns out that modeling the cell and higher-order bionetworks
would entail importing and utilizing all the major concepts, laws, and principles
developed in the entire history of sciences. There are about 26 different principles,
laws, and concepts that were incorporated into the Bhopalator model of the cell as
of 1997 (Table 5 in Ji 1997a). Since then at least six more additional laws and
concepts have been incorporated into the cell model as of January 2011. For the
analogy between cell biology and general relativity theory, see Smith and Welch
(1991), and for the analogy between special relativity and biology, see Table 2.5
in Sect. 2.3.1 . For the roles of linguistic and semiotic principles in biology, see
(Ji 1997a, 1999b, 2005a).
One of the most recent ideas to be added to the cell theory is that of “coincidence
detector,” namely, the idea that enzymes can be viewed as molecular devices which
receive two inputs (Brownian motions and chemical substrates) within narrow time
gaps (i.e., more or less simultaneously) leading to the production of ordered
molecular motions, including catalysis and vectorial movements of ligands (see
Sect. 7.2.2 ) . The conformon model of enzymic catalysis proposed in 1974
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