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Klappentext 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 theproblems 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 chemicalautomaton. 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 lifeapplicable 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 yearsindicate 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 fundamentalimportance 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 away 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. Zusammenfassung The exact scientific answer to these ancient questions are indispensable preconditions for the understanding of the origins of life, for the artificial synthesis of living systems, but also for some important social problems, such as the beginning and the end of the human life etc.Professor Gánti offers a radically novel approach to the problem: based on his theory of fluid (chemical) automata he proves that all living systems are basically program controlled self-reproducing fluid automata and that such automata behave as living systems. The simplest such construction-the chemoton-behaves as living, and all living systems have chemoton type organisation. This means that the chemoton model is the minimum model of life. The technical details have been published elsewhere: in this volume the logical train of though is presented in a clear and easily understandable manner. The first part gives a general view of the idea; the second shows its application to the biogenesis, the third gives the background of the theory in the natural philosophy of sciences.Gánti's chemical perspective captures the fundamentally cyclic organization of the living state, offers a fresh approach to the ancient problem of life criteria", and articulates a philosophy of the units of life applicable to genetics, chemistry, evolutionary biology, and exact theoretical biology"New essays by Eörs Szathmáry and James Griesemer on the biological and philosophical significance of Gánti's work indicate its enduring theoretical significance, continuing relevance and heuristic power. New notes throughout the text bring this legacy into dialogue with current thought in biology and philosophy. LEVELS OF LIFE AND DEATH; THE NATURE OF LIFE; THE UNITARY THEORY OF LIFE; THE BIOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF GANTI'S WORK IN 1971 AND TODAY; THE PHILOSOPHICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF GANTI'S WORK; REFERENCES; INDEX...
