Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 12.13 The regularities common to physics, biology, and linguistics as revealed by the “table
analysis” (Ji 1991). Experience is assumed to possess two complementary aspects -
quantitative
and
qualitative
. Only the quantitative aspect of experience is subject to
dimensional analysis
(Stahl
1961) . The following dimensionalities are assumed to be fundamental: M
¼
mass; L
¼
length;
T
¼
time; Q
¼
electrical charge;
Y ¼
temperature; and N
¼
number of moles of chemicals.
Three universal properties are suggested in this table: Iqt
¼
quantitative information
(Sect.
4.3
);
E
gnergy
, postulated to be the universal
driving force for all organizations in the Universe including communication (Sect.
2.3.2
)
Regularities
(
morphisms
)
¼
¼
y
(Target object)
x
(Source object)
Universal
properties
a
Fields
Selection
b
(counting) I
qt
1. y
¼
ax log x
(1a) Statistical
mechanics
Entropy (S)
[ML
2
T
2
# of microstates
[dimensionless}
y
1
]
Information (I
qt
)
c
[dimensionless]
(1b) Information
theory
Probability
of an event
[dimensionless]
2. y
¼
a/
(Ax + B)
5
/
(e
b/(Ax + B)
-1)
(2a) Blackbody
radiation
Light intensity
[ML
1
T
2
]
Wavelength [L]
Quantization of
energies
d
E
(2b) Protein
stability
Frequency
[dimensionless]
Ground-state free
energy levels
[dimensionless]
(2c) Single-
molecule
enzymology
Frequency
[dimensionless]
Waiting times [T]
(2d) Whole-cell
metabolism
Frequency
[dimensionless]
Pair-wise similarity
scores of RNA
trajectories
[L
3
N]
3. Linguistics
(3a) Human
language
(humanese)
Meaning (quality) Signs (I)
(quality)
Communication
(representation)
G
(3b) Cell
language
(cellese)
Gene-directed
processes
(quality)
Stimuli to cell
(quality)
a
The properties or characteristics common to two or more categories
b
Selection has three aspects: (1) The message source from which something is selected, (2) the
selector or the channel that selects, and (3) the selected message carrying information. We may
refer to this notion as the “triadic definition of selection.” The
biological evolution
can be viewed as
a member of the class of
selection
c
Information I is postulated to have two complementary aspects - the quantitative (I
qt
) and
qualitative (I
ql
). See text for a detailed explanation
d
Including Gibbs free energy of enzymes
into one another according to a set of rules called
morphisms.
Hence each of the eight
rows in Table
12.13
numbered 1a-3b can be viewed as a category. The eight
categories in Table
12.13
are grouped into three
higher-order categories
numbered
1, 2, and 3 based on the common properties (or universal properties) given in the last
column. The
universal property
is here simply defined as the
properties common to
two or more categories.
The formal definition of the universal property (
http://en.
wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_propeerty
)
is complex and beyond the scope of this
topic. The universal properties common to a set of categories may require more than
one term to be adequately expressed as evidenced by the appearance of multiple
terms in each of the major categories in the last column of Table
12.13
.
