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Book Control Theory and Systems Biology

Download or read book Control Theory and Systems Biology written by Pablo A. Iglesias and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A survey of how engineering techniques from control and systems theory can be used to help biologists understand the behavior of cellular systems.

Book Minimal Selfhood and the Origins of Consciousness

Download or read book Minimal Selfhood and the Origins of Consciousness written by Rupert Glasgow and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2018-07-10 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Minimal Selfhood and the Origins of Consciousness, R.D.V. Glasgow seeks to ground the logical roots of consciousness in what he has previously called the 'minimal self'. The idea is that elementary forms of consciousness are logically dependent not, as is commonly assumed, on ownership of an anatomical brain or nervous system, but on the intrinsic reflexivity that defines minimal selfhood. The aim of the book is to trace the logical pathway by which minimal selfhood gives rise to the possible appearance of consciousness. It is argued that in specific circumstances it thus makes sense to ascribe elementary consciousness to certain predatory single-celled organisms such as amoebae and dinoflagellates as well as to some of the simpler animals. Such an argument involves establishing exactly what those specific circumstances are and determining how elementary consciousness differs in nature and scope from its more complex manifestations.

Book Order Out of Chaos

    Book Details:
  • Author : Ilya Prigogine
  • Publisher : Verso Books
  • Release : 2018-01-23
  • ISBN : 1786631024
  • Pages : 385 pages

Download or read book Order Out of Chaos written by Ilya Prigogine and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2018-01-23 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A pioneering book that shows how the two great themes of classic science, order and chaos, are being reconciled in a new and unexpected synthesis Order Out of Chaos is a sweeping critique of the discordant landscape of modern scientific knowledge. In this landmark book, Nobel Laureate Ilya Prigogine and acclaimed philosopher Isabelle Stengers offer an exciting and accessible account of the philosophical implications of thermodynamics. Prigogine and Stengers bring contradictory philosophies of time and chance into a novel and ambitious synthesis. Since its first publication in France in 1978, this book has sparked debate among physicists, philosophers, literary critics and historians.

Book Cellular Oscillatory Mechanisms

Download or read book Cellular Oscillatory Mechanisms written by Miguel Maroto and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-12-19 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Oscillatory dynamics are a central feature of a wide range of biological processes. This text fully explores cellular oscillations, focusing particularly on elucidating the basic mechanisms that underlie these oscillations.

Book Evolution of the First Nervous Systems

Download or read book Evolution of the First Nervous Systems written by Peter A.V. Anderson and published by Springer. This book was released on 2013-07-18 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book represents the proceedings of a NATO Advanced Research Workshop of the same name, held at St. Andrews University, Scotland in July of 1989. It was the first meeting of its kind and was convened as a forum to review and discuss the phylogeny of some of the cell biological functions that underlie nervous system function, such matters as intercellular communication in diverse, lower organisms, and the electrical excitability of protozoans and cnidarians, to mention but two. The rationale behind such work has not necessarily been to understand how the first nervous systems evolved; many of the animals in question provide excellent opportunities for examining general questions that are unapproachable in the more complex nervous systems of higher animals. Nevertheless, a curiosity about nervous system evolution has invariably pervaded much of the work. The return on this effort has been mixed, depending to a large extent on the usefulness of the preparation under examination. For example, work on cnidarians, to many the keystone phylum in nervous system evolution simply because they possess the "first" nervous systems, lagged behind that carried out on protozoans, because the latter are large, single cells and, thus, far more amenable to microelectrode-based recording techniques. Furthermore, protozoans can be cultured easily and are more amenable to genetic and molecular analyses.

Book The Self made Tapestry

Download or read book The Self made Tapestry written by Philip Ball and published by . This book was released on 2001 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For centuries, scientists have struggled to understand the origins of the patterns and forms found in nature. Now, in this lucid and accessibly written book, Philip Ball applies state-of-the-art scientific understanding from the fields of biology, chemistry, geology, physics, and mathematics to these ancient mysteries, revealing how nature's seemingly complex patterns originate in simple physical laws. Tracing the history of scientific thought about natural patterns, Ball shows how common presumptions--for example, that complex form must be guided by some intelligence or that form always follows function--are erroneous and continue to mislead scientists today. He investigates specific patterns in depth, revealing that these designs are self-organized and that simple, local interactions between component parts produce motifs like spots, stripes, branches, and honeycombs. In the process, he examines the mysterious phenomenon of symmetry and why it appears--and breaks--in similar ways in different systems. Finally, he attempts to answer this profound question: why are some patterns universal? Illustrations throughout the text, many in full color, beautifully illuminate Ball's ideas.

Book The Minimal Self

    Book Details:
  • Author : Rupert Glasgow
  • Publisher : BoD – Books on Demand
  • Release : 2017-06-13
  • ISBN : 3958260527
  • Pages : 394 pages

Download or read book The Minimal Self written by Rupert Glasgow and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2017-06-13 with total page 394 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Self' is a term that is much used but often poorly understood or over-hastily dismissed. In The Minimal Self R.D.V. Glasgow seeks to unearth the underlying nature of selfhood. Glasgow's approach is based upon the notion of 'intrinsic reflexivity', which manifests itself in three fundamental forms: self-maintenance, self-reproduction and self-containment. Through a conceptual analysis of selfhood, Glasgow aims to ascertain what distinguishes full forms of minimal selfhood from entities such as genes and viruses that are merely selfish or self-like. The idea is to establish the logical prerequisites for the transition from a world bereft of selfhood to one populated by selves like us. Minimal selfhood thus provides a bridge linking philosophy, biology and other disciplines that have previously failed to coincide in their understanding of what a self is.

Book Biophysics Of Consciousness  A Foundational Approach

Download or read book Biophysics Of Consciousness A Foundational Approach written by Roman R Poznanski and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2016-08-25 with total page 665 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The problem of how the brain produces consciousness, subjectivity and 'something it is like to be' remains one of the greatest challenges to a complete science of the natural world. While various scientists and philosophers approach the problem from their own unique perspectives and in the terms of their own respective fields, Biophysics of Consciousness: A Foundational Approach attempts a consilience across disparate disciplines to explain how it is possible that an objective brain produces subjective experience.This volume unites the crème de la crème of physicists, neuroscientists, and psychiatrists in the attempt to understand consciousness through a foundational approach encompassing ontological, evolutionary, neurobiological, and Freudian interpretations with the focus on conscious phenomena occurring in the brain. By integrating the perspectives of these diverse disciplines with the latest research and theories on the biophysics of the brain, the book tries to explain how consciousness can be an adaptive and causal element in the natural world.

Book Reaction Diffusion Computers

Download or read book Reaction Diffusion Computers written by Andrew Adamatzky and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2005-10-05 with total page 349 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The book introduces a hot topic of novel and emerging computing paradigms and architectures -computation by travelling waves in reaction-diffusion media. A reaction-diffusion computer is a massively parallel computing device, where the micro-volumes of the chemical medium act as elementary few-bit processors, and chemical species diffuse and react in parallel. In the reaction-diffusion computer both the data and the results of the computation are encoded as concentration profiles of the reagents, or local disturbances of concentrations, whilst the computation per se is performed via the spreading and interaction of waves caused by the local disturbances. The monograph brings together results of a decade-long study into designing experimental and simulated prototypes of reaction-diffusion computing devices for image processing, path planning, robot navigation, computational geometry, logics and artificial intelligence. The book is unique because it gives a comprehensive presentation of the theoretical and experimental foundations, and cutting-edge computation techniques, chemical laboratory experimental setups and hardware implementation technology employed in the development of novel nature-inspired computing devices. Key Features: - Non-classical and fresh approach to theory of computation. - In depth exploration of novel and emerging paradigms of nature-inspired computing. - Simple to understand cellular-automata models will help readers/students to design their own computational experiments to advance ideas and concepts described in the book . - Detailed description of receipts and experimental setups of chemical laboratory reaction-diffusion processors will make the book an invaluable resource in practical studies of non-classical and nature-inspired computing architectures . - Step by step explanations of VLSI reaction-diffusion circuits will help students to design their own types of wave-based processors. Key Features: - Non-classical and fresh approach to theory of computation. - In depth exploration of novel and emerging paradigms of nature-inspired computing. - Simple to understand cellular-automata models will help readers/students to design their own computational experiments to advance ideas and concepts described in the book . - Detailed description of receipts and experimental setups of chemical laboratory reaction-diffusion processors will make the book an invaluable resource in practical studies of non-classical and nature-inspired computing architectures . - Step by step explanations of VLSI reaction-diffusion circuits will help students to design their own types of wave-based processors.

Book Flow

    Book Details:
  • Author : Philip Ball
  • Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
  • Release : 2011-05-26
  • ISBN : 0199604878
  • Pages : 199 pages

Download or read book Flow written by Philip Ball and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2011-05-26 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Ball takes us on an inspiring journey into the depths of nature, encompassing all the sciences, in which we discover that broad and elegant principles underpin the formation of the countless beautiful patterns around us."--Inside jacket.

Book Cosmopolitics II

    Book Details:
  • Author : Isabelle Stengers
  • Publisher : Posthumanities
  • Release : 2011
  • ISBN : 9780816656899
  • Pages : 480 pages

Download or read book Cosmopolitics II written by Isabelle Stengers and published by Posthumanities. This book was released on 2011 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sweeping inquiry that critiques modern science's claims of objectivity, rationality, and truth

Book The Essential Tension

    Book Details:
  • Author : Sonya Bahar
  • Publisher : Springer
  • Release : 2018-09-06
  • ISBN : 9789402414776
  • Pages : 0 pages

Download or read book The Essential Tension written by Sonya Bahar and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-09-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The Essential Tension' explores how agents that naturally compete come to act together as a group. The author argues that the controversial concept of multilevel selection is essential to biological evolution, a proposition set to stimulate new debate. The idea of one collective unit emerging from the cooperative interactions of its constituent (and mutually competitive) parts has its roots in the ancient world. More recently, it has illuminated studies of animal behavior, and played a controversial role in evolutionary biology. In Part I, the author explores the historical development of the idea of a collectivity in biological systems, from early speculations on the sociology of human crowd behavior, through the mid-twentieth century debates over the role of group selection in evolution, to the notion of the selfish gene. Part II investigates the balance between competition and cooperation in a range of contemporary biological problems, from flocking and swarming to experimental evolution and the evolution of multicellularity. Part III addresses experimental studies of cooperation and competition, as well as controversial ideas such as the evolution of evolvability and Stephen Jay Gould’s suggestion that “spandrels” at one level of selection serve as possible sources of variability for the next higher level. Finally, building on the foundation established in the preceding chapters, the author arrives at a provocative new proposition: as a result of the essential tension between competition and cooperation, multiple levels may be essential in order for evolutionary processes to occur at all.

Book Mutants in Nature

Download or read book Mutants in Nature written by Kirsten W. Larson and published by Amicus Ink. This book was released on 2016-02-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Truth is stranger than fiction, right? Find out where you can uncover real-life vampires and zombies. Learn about crazy mutations, and discover animals with amazing super powers. Pop culture tie-ins and freaky facts hook readers into learning about animal and plant science. They may seem like stories from comic books, but you might find these freaky plants and animals in your own backyard. This photo-illustrated book for elementary readers describes the types of mutations that can happen to animals and plants. Highlights how outside forces or random genetic mishaps can cause extra or missing limbs, color variations such as albinism, and other abnormalities.

Book Multicellularity

    Book Details:
  • Author : Karl J. Niklas
  • Publisher : MIT Press
  • Release : 2016-02-12
  • ISBN : 0262034158
  • Pages : 329 pages

Download or read book Multicellularity written by Karl J. Niklas and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2016-02-12 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scholars consider the origins and consequences of the evolution of multicellularity, addressing a range of organisms, experimental protocols, theoretical concepts, and philosophical issues. The evolution of multicellularity raises questions regarding genomic and developmental commonalities and discordances, selective advantages and disadvantages, physical determinants of development, and the origins of morphological novelties. It also represents a change in the definition of individuality, because a new organism emerges from interactions among single cells. This volume considers these and other questions, with contributions that explore the origins and consequences of the evolution of multicellularity, addressing a range of topics, organisms, and experimental protocols. Each section focuses on selected topics or particular lineages that present a significant insight or challenge. The contributors consider the fossil record of the paleontological circumstances in which animal multicellularity evolved; cooptation, recurrent patterns, modularity, and plausible pathways for multicellular evolution in plants; theoretical approaches to the amoebozoa and fungi (cellular slime molds having long provided a robust model system for exploring the evolution of multicellularity), plants, and animals; genomic toolkits of metazoan multicellularity; and philosophical aspects of the meaning of individuality in light of multicellular evolution. Contributors Maja Adamska, Argyris Arnellos, Juan A. Arias, Eugenio Azpeitia, Mariana Benítez, Adriano Bonforti, John Tyler Bonner, Peter L. Conlin, A. Keith Dunker, Salva Duran-Nebreda, Ana E. Escalante, Valeria Hernández-Hernández, Kunihiko Kaneko, Andrew H. Knoll, Stephan G. König, Daniel J. G. Lahr, Ottoline Leyser, Alan C. Love, Raul Montañez, Emilio Mora van Cauwelaert, Alvaro Moreno, Vidyanand Nanjundiah, Aurora M. Nedelcu, Stuart A. Newman, Karl J. Niklas, William C. Ratcliff, Iñaki Ruiz-Trillo, Ricard Solé