Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
activation energy barrier) or exerting mechanical forces on its environment as in
the
control information
that determines the number of conformons stored in an
enzyme at any given time is encoded in the amino acid sequence of the enzyme
which in turn determines the 3-dimensional shape of the enzyme under a given
environmental condition. The function of the enzyme can be very broadly identified
as the time- and space-organized biopolymer motions in the cell driven by exer-
gonic chemical reactions, including not only molecular motor and pump functions
but also basic catalysis such as covalent modification of substrates in solution.
15.4 The Synchronic vs. Diachronic System-Environment
Interactions
In biology, we can recognize two distinct classes of
system-environment
interactions
- (1) the
individual-environment interactions
(IEI) and (2) the
popula-
tion-system interactions
(PEI) (see Row 1 in Table
15.3
). IEI takes place over a
Table 15.3 Synchronic and diachronic interactions between living systems and their environment
Interactions
Synchronic
Diachronic
1. Systems
Individual organisms
Populations of organisms
Synchronic time
(or
developmental time
)
Diachronic time (or
evolutionary time
)
3. Mechanisms
of interactions
Force-mediated
Code-mediated
Rules, codes, conventions (Thirdness)
a
4. Principles obeyed Laws of physics and chemistry
(Secondness)
a
5. Fields
Molecular biology
Evolutionary biology
Chemical biology
Paleontology
Epigenetics
b
Genetics
c
(Synchronic biology)
(Diachronic biology)
“Semantic biology”
Cell biology (
genomics
)
d
Physiology
“Evolutionary developmental biology (or EvoDevo)”
“Developmental evolutionary biology”
“Biosemiotics”
e
“Biognergetics”
f
a
Related to the metaphysics of Peirce (see Sect.
6.2.1
)
b
The study of the effects of genes (other than their nucleotide sequences) on the phenotypes of
individuals here and now
c
The study of the effects of genes (i.e., their nucleotide sequences) of individuals on the
phenotypes of their offspring
d
Genomics is here defined as a combination of
epigenetics
and
genetics
(Sebeok 1990, Hoffmeyer 1996, Pattee 2008)
f
The study of information (
gn-
) and energy
(erg
) transductions in living systems (Ji 1985a, b)
