Maly Quantitative Elements of General Biology

A Dynamical Systems Approach
1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-3-030-79146-9
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Wasserzeichen (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 200 Seiten, eBook

This monograph sketches out a broad spectrum of problems (from evolution and metabolism to morphogenesis and biogeographical dynamics) whose solution has been impacted by mathematical models. Each of the selected examples has led to the recognition—and set direction to further study—of certain fundamental but unintuitive properties of biological systems, such as the making and breaking of specific symmetries that underlie morphogenesis. Whether they are long-established or only recently accepted, these models are selected for being thought-provoking and illuminating both the achievements and the gaps in our current understanding of the given area of biology. The selection of models is also meant to bring to the fore the existing degree of unity in the quantitative approach to diverse general-biological questions and in the systems-level properties that are discovered across the levels of biological organization. It is the thesis of this book that further cultivation of such unity is a way forward as we progress toward a general theory of living matter.

This is an ideal book for students (in the broadest sense) of biology who wish to learn from this attempt to present the exemplary models, their methodological lessons, and the outline of a unified theory of living matter that is now beginning to emerge. In addition to a doctoral student preparing for quantitative biology research, this reader could also be an interdisciplinary scientist transitioning to biology. The latter—for example, a physicist or an engineer—may be comfortable with the mathematical apparatus and prepared to quickly enter the intended area of work, but desires a broader foundation in biology from the quantitative perspective.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Maly, Ivan

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Chapter 1. Introduction
1.1. Subject of general biology1.2. Goals of the quantitative approach1.3. Physical-chemical basis of lifeChapter 2. Darwinian dynamics2.1. Quasi-species theory2.2. Natural selection in subcellular dynamicsChapter 3. Homeostasis3.1. Control processes3.2. Regime-switch modelsChapter 4. Cellular organization4.1. Self-centering4.2. Symmetry-breaking4.3. Emergent mechanical irreversibility4.4. Dissipative oscillationsChapter 5. Multicellular form and movement
5.1. Symmetry: folds and axes
5.2. Spaced foci and segmentation5.3. Waves and cyclic motionChapter 6. Inter-species and planetary-scale dynamics6.1. Stability and instability in population models6.2. Steady states and cycles of interacting populations
6.3. Generational models and chaos
6.4. Dynamics of spatial interaction patterns

Über Autor(innen)

Ivan Maly earned his PhD in the Life Sciences from Northwestern University. After a research stint in the Biological Engineering Division at MIT, he became a founding member of the Department of Computational and Systems Biology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Now at the State University of New York, he continues his experimental and computational cell-biological research while maintaining a broad interest in quantitative biology and problems of knowledge integration. His earlier books are
Systems Biology
(Springer, 2009) and
Systems Biomechanics of the Cell
(Springer, 2013).