What is life? : the next fifty years : speculations on the future of biology

Bibliographic Information

What is life? : the next fifty years : speculations on the future of biology

edited by Michael P. Murphy, Luke A.J. O'Neill

Cambridge University Press, 1995

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"Contains most of the contributions presented at a conference held at Trinity College, Dublin, from Sept. 20-22, 1993" -- T.p verso

Includes bibliographical references and index

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Erwin Schroedinger's book What is Life? had a tremendous influence on the development of molecular biology, stimulating scientists such as Watson and Crick to explore the physical basis of life. Much of the appeal of Schroedinger's book lay in its approach to the central problems in biology - heredity and how organisms use energy to maintain order - from a physicist's perspective. At Trinity College, Dublin a number of outstanding scientists from a range of disciplines gathered to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of What is Life? and following Schroedinger's example fifty years previously, presented their views on the current central problems in biology. The contributors to this volume include Stephen Jay Gould, Roger Penrose, Jared Diamond, Manfred Eigen, John Maynard Smith, Christien de Duve and Lewis Wolpert. This collection is essential reading for anyone interested in biology and its future.

Table of Contents

  • 1. What is life? The next fifty years: an introduction Michael P. Murphy and Luke A. J. O'Neill
  • 2. What will endure of twentieth-century biology? Manfred Eigen
  • 3. What is Life? as a problem in history Stephen Jay Gould
  • 4. The evolution of human inventiveness Jared Diamond
  • 5. Development: is the egg computable or could we generate an angel? Lewis Wolpert
  • 6. Language and life John Maynard Smith and Eoers Szthmary
  • 7. RNA without protein or protein without RNA? Christian de Duve
  • 8. What is life?: Was Schroedinger right? Stuart A. Kauffman
  • 9. Why do we need a new physics of the mind? Roger Penrose
  • 10. Do the laws of nature evolve? Walter Thirring
  • 11. New laws to be expected in the organism: synergetics of brain and behaviour,J. A. Scott Kelso and Herman Haken
  • 12. Order from disorder: the thermodynamics of complexity in biology Eric D. Schneider and James J. Kay
  • 13. Reminiscences Ruth Braunizer.

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