The Principles of Life (Oxford Biology) Book + PRICE WATCH * Amazon pricing is not included in price watch

The Principles of Life (Oxford Biology) Book

Based on the author's theory of fluid (chemical) automata this volume shows that all living systems are organized as program controlled self-reproducing fluid automata and proposes the simplest such construction - the chemoton - as the minimum model of life. It applies the chemoton model to the biogenesis of life.Read More

from£N/A | RRP: £80.00
* Excludes Voucher Code Discount Also available Used from £N/A
  • Product Description

    Beginning with a new essay, ""Levels of Life and Death,"" Tibor Ganti develops three general arguments about the nature of life. In ""The Nature of the Living State,"" Professor Ganti answers Francis Crick's puzzles about ""life itself,"" offering a set of reflections on the parameters of the problems to be solved in origins of life research and, more broadly, in the search for principles governing the living state in general. ""The Principle of Life"" describes in accessible language Ganti's chief insight about the organization of living systems-his theory of the ""chemoton,"" or chemical automaton. The simplest chemoton model of the living state consists of three chemically coupled subsystems: an autocatalytic metabolism, a genetic molecule and a membrane. Ganti offers a fresh approach to the ancient problem of ""life criteria,"" articulating a basic philosophy of the units of life applicable to the deepest theoretical considerations of genetics, chemical synthesis, evolutionary biology and the requirements of an ""exact theoretical biology."" New essays by Eors Szathmary and James Griesemer on the biological and philosophical significance of Ganti's work of thirty years indicate not only the enduring theoretical significance, but also the continuing relevance and heuristic power of Ganti's insights. New endnotes by Szathmary and Griesemer bring this legacy into dialogue with current thought in biology and philosophy. Ganti's chemoton model reveals the fundamental importance of chemistry for biology and philosophy. Ganti's technical innovation - cycle stoichiometry - at once captures the fundamental fact that biological systems are organized in cycles and at the same time offers a way to understand what it is to think chemically. Perhaps most fundamentally, Ganti's chemoton model avoids dualistic thinking enforced by the dichotomies of modern biology: germ and soma, gene and character, genotype and phenotype.

  • 0198507267
  • 9780198507260
  • Tibor Ganti
  • 18 September 2003
  • OUP Oxford
  • Hardcover (Book)
  • 224
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. If you click through any of the links below and make a purchase we may earn a small commission (at no extra cost to you). Click here to learn more.

Would you like your name to appear with the review?

We will post your book review within a day or so as long as it meets our guidelines and terms and conditions. All reviews submitted become the licensed property of www.find-book.co.uk as written in our terms and conditions. None of your personal details will be passed on to any other third party.

All form fields are required.