Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
3. Cookie
A piece of reality captured by (or that fits) the model or theory (A term)
4. Empty space left behind
¼
Anti-cookie, or the anti-model, that opposes the
reality captured by a model (B term)
5. The dough left behind
¼
¼
the reality that is beyond (or untouched by ) the model
¼
6. Different kinds of dough
There are more than one kind of reality that can be
captured by models. Some reality (e.g., music, spirituality) is more difficult to
model (i.e., to cut out with the “music” cookie cutter) than others (e.g., biology,
with the “biology” cookie cutter, physics with the “physics” cookie cutter, etc.)
Evidently the CCP model of complementarity contains three elements (b, e and
f) that are not specified by the complementarian logic (A, B, and C) (Sect.
2.3.3
),
which are valuable new features. Just as there are many different cookie cutters (for
a star, a circle, a bear, a gingerbread man, an airplane, an elephant, etc.) so, there
can be many different models of reality cut out by different “types” of cookie
cutters known as physics, biology, philosophy, art, and religion, each type having
almost an infinite number of tokens called relativity theory, quantum theory,
statistical mechanics in physics, or molecular biology, cell biology, physiology,
psychology, cardiology, cancer biology, neurobiology, etc. in biology. This visual
way of representing complementarity may be referred to as the “cookie-cutter
paradigm” of complementarity (CCPC). The cookie-cutter paradigm of comple-
mentarity is applied to Wolfram's New Kind of Science in Sect.
5.2.1
.
2.4 Renormalizable Networks and SOWAWN Machines
2.4.1 Definition of Bionetworks
A bionetwork (BN), i.e., the networks representing the structure of biological
systems, can be defined as a system of nodes connected by edges that exhibits
some biological functions or emergent properties not found in individual nodes.
Thus, a bionetwork can be represented as a 3-tuple:
BN
¼
ð
n
;
e
;
f
Þ
(2.56)
where n is the
node
, e is the
edge,
and f is the function or the emergent property of BN.
The term “renormalization” originated in quantum field theory and condensed
matter physics. In the latter field, the term is employed to refer to the fact that, under
some unusual conditions known as the critical points, a group of microscopic entities
(e.g., atoms, molecules) can form (or act as) a unit to exhibit novel properties (e.g.,
convection, rigidity, superconductivity, and superfluidity) that are beyond (and
hence unobservable in) individual component entities (Anderson 1972; Cao and
Schweber 1993; Huggett and Weingard 1995; Domb 1996; Laughlin 2005). The
essential idea of “renormalization” is captured by Barabasi (2002, p. 75) thus:
