Form and Transformation - Generative and Relational Principles in Biology

Klappentext This 2007 book argues that biology needs a theory of biological form, and that this must be based on a generative theory of organisms. Zusammenfassung Organisms have disappeared from biology as basic! explanatory entities! replaced by genes and their products. This 2007 book is concerned with the rediscovery and redefinition of organisms as the irreducible dynamic systems from which particular types of order emerge! explaining the characteristics of biological forms and their transformations in evolution. Inhaltsverzeichnis Preface; Acknowledgements; Part I. The Problem of Form: 1. Introduction: forms and kinds; 2. The old dialectic: empirical classification and Darwinian theory; 3. The ontological status of Taxa: material practice; 4. The ontological status of Taxa: theoretical practice; 5. Rational systematics and morphogenetic theory: a new dialectic?; 6. Putting the organism together again; Part II. Fields and Forms: 7. Segments, symmetries, and epigenetic maps; 8. The unitary morphogenetic field; 9. A generative biology; References; Index.

Product details

• Authors: Brian Goodwin, Gerry Webster, Gerry Goodwin Webster, Webster Gerry
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 28.04.2011
• EAN: 9780521207430
• ISBN: 978-0-521-20743-0
• No. of pages: 302
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Biology > Miscellaneous; SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Developmental Biology, Developmental biology