Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 4.2 The synchronic versus diachronic information in biology and physics
Information
Synchronic
Diachronic
Biology (a) Amino acid sequence of proteins
(a) Co-evolving subsets of amino acid residues
of proteins
(b) Enzymic catalysis
(b) Allosterism
(c)
Causal
interactions between
ligands and receptors
(c)
Encoded
interactions between primary and
secondary messengers
Physics
(a) Traditional physics
(a) Quantum weirdness (e.g., nonlocality)
(b) Hydrodynamics
(b) Cosmogenesis
(c) Copenhagen interpretation
(c) Einstein-de Broglie-Bohm-Bell- (EDBB)
interpretation
a
a
John S. Bell is included here because he mentioned the biological evolution as a metaphor for
understanding the nonlocality in his lecture delivered at Rutgers several years before he passed
away in 1990
possible structures of other Universes that might have been formed in parallel at t
¼
0
(Bacciagaluppi and Valentini 2009).
We can divide the history of the genesis of our Universe into two phases - (1) the
initiation (singularity) phase at t
¼
0, also called the Big Bang, and (2) the post-Big
Bang phase. The totality of the information carried by or encoded in the observable
Universe of ours can be identified with the synchronic information. The information
about those features of our Universe that correlate with similar features found in
other possible Universes generated at t
0 along with our Universe (but is too
distant for our Universe to communicate with) can be defined as diachronic infor-
mation. Since the interaction between our Universe and other possible Universes is
not allowed by the laws of physics and chemistry operating in our current Universe,
the diachronic aspect of our Universe transcends the laws of physics and chemistry,
allowing for the possibility of nonlocality, e.g., (see Table
4.2
).
It is clear that molecular biological phenomena carry both
synchronic
and
diachronic
informations as explained in Table
4.2
. It may well be that quantum
mechanical phenomena also carry
synchronic
and
diachronic
informations, but
physicists might have been slower in recognizing this fact than biologists, possibly
due to the paucity of clear experimental data indicating the effects of history.
Table
4.2
summarizes some of the evidence supporting the roles of synchronic
and diachronic informations in biology and physics.
If the content of Table
4.2
is right, it may be necessary to divide biology and
physics into two branches -
synchronic
and
diachronic
, just as the linguistics is so
divided (Culler 1991). One consequence of such a division in physics may be the
reconciliation between Bohr's and Einstein's long-standing debate (Plotnitsky
2006; Murdoch 1987) about the completeness (or the lack thereof) of quantum
mechanics thus:
¼
As Einstein claimed, quantum mechanics is incomplete because it does not address the
diachronic aspect of the reality. As Bohr claimed, quantum mechanics is complete because
it provides complete explanations for all synchronic phenomena in the Universe.
(4.20)
