Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Article (13)
- Working Paper (7)
- Book (2)
- Conference Proceeding (2)
- Preprint (1)
Language
- English (25) (remove)
Keywords
- pattern formation (4)
- TMV (3)
- autocatalysis (3)
- consciousness (3)
- decodability (3)
- science (3)
- RNA (2)
- Trembley (2)
- electricity (2)
- infectivity (2)
- lateral inhibition (2)
- protein synthesis (2)
- religion (2)
- Assabyah (1)
- Bewusstsein (1)
- Biowissenschaften (1)
- Boussinesq conditions (1)
- Buoyancy driven flows (1)
- Carnap (1)
- Caspar Friedrich Wolff (1)
- China (1)
- Cusanus (1)
- DNA (1)
- Eriugena (1)
- Europe (1)
- Feigl (1)
- Fokker-Planck (1)
- Galilei (1)
- Goedel (1)
- Gödel (1)
- Heisenberg (1)
- History of Science (1)
- Homo sapiens (1)
- Hydra (1)
- Hypatia (1)
- Internationale Kooperation (1)
- Isaac Israeli (1)
- Jesuits (1)
- Khaldun (1)
- Kindi (1)
- Kurt Gödel (1)
- Lateral inhibition (1)
- Laterale Inhibition (1)
- Mind (1)
- Naturwissenschaft und Mathematik (1)
- Neuroscience (1)
- Nusselt number measurements (1)
- Pattern formation (1)
- Philosophy of Science (1)
- Polyribosomes (1)
- Polysomes (1)
- Psychological Concepts (1)
- Psychological Instruments (1)
- Psychology (1)
- Regeneration (1)
- Reticulocytes (1)
- Rudolf Carnap (1)
- Strukturbildung (1)
- Taylor Couette flow (1)
- Theory (1)
- Thermal convection (1)
- Wissenschaftskooperation (1)
- Wolff (1)
- axonal branching (1)
- axons (1)
- brain (1)
- brain evolution (1)
- brain mind (1)
- brain mind relation (1)
- cell aggregates (1)
- cognition (1)
- combinatorial (1)
- cooperation (1)
- cruciform DNA (1)
- cultural diversity (1)
- decidability (1)
- decision theory (1)
- desamination (1)
- development (1)
- developmental-biology (1)
- early career (1)
- embryology (1)
- empathy (1)
- energy dissipation (1)
- evolution (1)
- finitistic (1)
- gene regulation (1)
- gradients (1)
- growth cone (1)
- guidance (1)
- head formation (1)
- heat (1)
- heat current (1)
- high Rayleigh number convection (1)
- history (1)
- history of science (1)
- history of technology (1)
- holistic (1)
- human capital (1)
- hydra (1)
- hydra regeneration (1)
- income distribution (1)
- international cooperation (1)
- lateral-inhibition (1)
- medieval philosophy (1)
- messenger RNA (1)
- mind (1)
- momentum flux (1)
- mutagenesis (1)
- mutation in vitro (1)
- neurogenesis (1)
- non-Oberbeck-Boussinesq conditions (1)
- palindromes (1)
- pattern-formation (1)
- philosophy of science (1)
- pipe flow (1)
- polarity (1)
- projection (1)
- promotion of young scientists (1)
- quantum physics (1)
- reaction-diffusion (1)
- regeneration (1)
- retinotectal (1)
- ribonucleic acid (1)
- science cooperation (1)
- self reference (1)
- single strand (1)
- sociobiology (1)
- solidarity (1)
- sorting out (1)
- steamships (1)
- terminal arbour (1)
- theology (1)
- theoretica concepts (1)
- thermal convection (1)
- tissue evagination (1)
- undecidability (1)
- virus (1)
Has Fulltext
- yes (25)
Institute
- Veröffentlichungen von Akademiemitgliedern (25) (remove)
Socioeconomic inequalities are functions not only of intrinsic differences between persons or groups, but also of the dynamics of their interactions. Inequalities can arise and become stabilized if there are advantages (such as generalized wealth including “human capital”) which are self-enhancing, whereas depletion of limiting resources is widely distributed. A recent theory of biological pattern formation has been generalized, adapted and applied to deal with this process. Applications include models for the non-Gaussian distribution of personal income and wealth, for overall economic growth in relation to inequalities and for effects of uncoupling strategies between developing and developed countries. Note added after publication: The equations (14) for the model of the income distribution, with its characteristic non-Gaussian extension towards higher incomes (fig.4), are closely related to the Fokker-Planck equation that is widely applied in many fields of physics.
Within the sedimentation diagram of infective RNA preparations isolated from Tobacco Mosaic Virus, undegraded molecules form a sharp peak with a molecular weight corresponding to the total RNA content of the virus particle. Degradation kinetics by ribonuclease is of the linear, single-target type, indicating that the RNA is single-stranded. The intact RNA of a virus particle thus forms one big single-stranded molecule. Quantitative evaluation of the effect degradation by RNA-ase on the infectivity of the RNA shows that the integrity of the entire molecule is required for its biological activity.
The introductory personal remarks refer to my motivations for choosing research projects, and for moving from physics to molecular biology and then to development, with Hydra as a model system. Historically, Trembley’s discovery of Hydra regeneration in 1744 was the begin¬ning of developmental biology as we understand it, with passionate debates about preformation versus de novo generation, mechanisms versus organisms. In fact, seemingly conflicting bottom-up and top-down concepts are both required in combination to understand development. In modern terms, this means analysing the molecules involved, as well as searching for physical principles underlying development within systems of molecules, cells and tissues. During the last decade, molecular biology has provided surprising and impressive evidence that the same types of mol¬ecules and molecular systems are involved in pattern formation in a wide range of organisms, including coelenterates like Hydra, and thus appear to have been “invented” early in evolution. Likewise, the features of certain systems, especially those of developmental regulation, are found in many different organisms. This includes the generation of spatial structures by the interplay of self-enhancing activation and “lateral” inhibitory effects of wider range, which is a main topic of my essay. Hydra regeneration is a particularly clear model for the formation of defined patterns within initially near-uniform tissues. In conclusion, this essay emphasizes the analysis of development in terms of physical laws, including the application of mathematics, and insists that Hydra was, and will continue to be, a rewarding model for understanding general features of embryogenesis and regeneration.
Full applicability of physics to human biology does not necessarily imply that one can uncover a comprehensive, algorithmic correlation between physical brain states and corresponding mental states. The argument takes into account that information processing is finite in principle in a finite world. Presumbly the brain-mind-relation cannot be resolved in all essential aspects, particularly when high degrees of abstraction or self-analytical processes are involved. Our conjecture plausibly unifies the universal validity of physics and a logical limitation of human thought, and it does not regard consciousness -the most basic human experience - as a marginal phenomenon. ++++ RATIO appeared up to 1987 in both a German and an English version. The German title of this article: Alfred Gierer, Der physikalische Grundlegungsversuch in der Biologie und das psychophysische Problem. RATIO XII, Heft 1, 1970, S. 40-54.
The topic of this article is the relation between bottom-up and top-down, reductionist and “holistic” approaches to the solution of basic biological problems. While there is no doubt that the laws of physics apply to all events in space and time, including the domains of life, understanding biology depends not only on elucidating the role of the molecules involved, but, to an increasing extent, on systems theoretical approaches in diverse fields of the life sciences. Examples discussed in this article are the generation of spatial patterns in development by the interplay of autocatalysis and lateral inhibition; the evolution of integrating capabilities of the human brain, such as cognition-based empathy; and both neurobiological and epistemological aspects of scientific theories of consciousness and the mind.