Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 10.4 An analogy between atomic physics and cell biology based on the similarity between
line spectra
and
microarray gene expression profiles
shown in Fig.
10.5
Parameter
Atomic physics
Cell biology
1. Time
Nineteenth to twentieth
century
Twentieth to twenty-first century
2. Experimental
technique
Atomic absorption/
emission
cDNA array technology (1995)
Spectroscopy
(nineteenth century)
3. Changes measured
Electronic energy levels
RNA concentration levels (ascending,
descending, or staying steady)
associated with specific metabolic
functions
4. Perturbed by
Photons
Environmental chemicals/factors
including hormones, cytokines,
and neurotransmitters
5. Experimental data
Atomic line spectra
Patterns of RNA level changes in the cell
(
ribons
, RNA trajectories or RNA
waves)
6. Data determined by Atomic structure
Cell structure
7. Regularities
Lyman series
Patterns of RNA level changes (or ribonic
spectra) obeying the blackbody
radiation-like equation (BRE)
(Sect.
12.12
)
Balmer series
Pfund series, etc.
8. Theoretical model
Bohr's atom (1913)
The Bhopalator (Ji 1985a, b, 2002b)
9. Basic concepts
Quantum of action
(1900)
The conformon as the
quantum of
biological communication
(Green
and Ji 1972a, b; Ji 1991, 2000)
IDSs (Ji 1985a, b)
Modular biology (Hartwell et al. 1999)
Hyperstructures (Norris et al. 1999, 2007a, b)
SOWAWN machines (Ji 2006b)
10. Theory
and principles
Quantum theory (1925)
The conformon theory of molecular
machines (Ji 1974a, b, 2000)
Franck-Condon
principle (Reynolds
and Lumry 1966)
Cell language theory (Ji 1997a, b)
Molecular information theory (Ji 2004a)
Generalized Franck-Codnon principle
(Ji 1974a, 1991)
11. Philosophy
Complementarity
(1915)
Complementarism (Ji 1995) (Sect.
2.3.4
)
12. A unified theory
of physics, biology,
and Philosophy
The Tarragonator
(Appendix
A
; Ji 2004b)
measured by cDNA arrays (Sect.
12.1
) and other methods as functions of environ-
mental perturbations. So defined, ribonoscopy is an experimental technique for
ribonomics, a term recently coined by Keene (2006) to denote the genome-wide
study of RNA changes in cells. In other words, it may be suggested that
Ribonoscopy is to ribonomics what spectroscopy is to atomic physics.
(10.3)
