Denis Noble

Dance to the Tune of Life

What is Life? Decades of research have resulted in the full mapping of the human genome - three billion pairs of code whose functions are only now being understood. The gene's eye view of life, advocated by evolutionary biology, sees living bodies as mere vehicles for the replication of the genetic codes.But for a physiologist, working with the living organism, the view is a very different one. Denis Noble is a world renowned physiologist, and sets out an alternative view to the question - one that becomes deeply significant in terms of the living, breathing organism. The genome is not life itself. Noble argues that far from genes building organisms, they should be seen as prisoners of the organism.The view of life presented in this little, modern, post-genome project reflection on the nature of life, is that of the systems biologist: to understand what life is, we must view it at a variety of different levels, all interacting with each other in a complex web. It is that emergent web, full of feedback between levels, from the gene to the wider environment, that is life. It is a kind of music.Including stories from Noble's own research experience, his work on the heartbeat, musical metaphors, and elements of linguistics and Chinese culture, this very personal and at times deeply lyrical book sets out thesystems biology view of life.

Biology Beyond Genes

The Music of Life

James A. Shapiro

Stuart A. Kauffman

Richard I. Vane-Wright

Peter A. Corning

A unique exploration of teleonomy—also known as “evolved purposiveness”—as a major influence in evolution by a broad range of specialists in biology and the philosophy of science. The evolved purposiveness of living systems, termed “teleonomy” by chronobiologist Colin Pittendrigh, has been both a major outcome and causal factor in the history of life on Earth. Many theorists have appreciated this over the years, going back to Lamarck and even Darwin in the nineteenth century. In the mid-twentieth century, however, the complex, dynamic process of evolution was simplified into the one-way, bottom-up, single gene-centered paradigm widely known as the modern synthesis. In Evolution “On Purpose,” edited by Peter A. Corning, Stuart A. Kauffman, Denis Noble, James A. Shapiro, Richard I. Vane-Wright, and Addy Pross, some twenty theorists attempt to modify this reductive approach by exploring in depth the different ways in which living systems have themselves shaped the course of evolution. Evolution “On Purpose” puts forward a more inclusive theoretical synthesis that goes far beyond the underlying principles and assumptions of the modern synthesis to accommodate work since the 1950s in molecular genetics, developmental biology, epigenetic inheritance, genomics, multilevel selection, niche construction, physiology, behavior, biosemiotics, chemical reaction theory, and other fields. In the view of the authors, active biological processes are responsible for the direction and the rate of evolution. Essays in this collection grapple with topics from the two-way “read-write” genome to cognition and decision-making in plants to the niche-construction activities of many organisms to the self-making evolution of humankind. As this collection compellingly shows, and as bacterial geneticist James Shapiro emphasizes, “The capacity of living organisms to alter their own heredity is undeniable.”

Teleonomy in Living Systems

Evolution "On Purpose"

This book formulates a relativistic theory of biology, challenging the common gene-centred view of organisms.

Biological Relativity

Susan Wray

Georges Leftheriotis

Emmanuelle Vidal-Petiot

Adriana Castello Costa Girardi

Matthew A. Bailey

Deborah Schechtman

Ravi Nistala

The Tribute of Physiology for the Understanding of COVID-19 Disease

University Lecturer Department of Human Anatomy C A R Boyd

C. A. R. Boyd

D. Noble

A highly challenging collection of essays by eminent scientists on the theme of integrative approaches to physiological questions, this book discusses the changing boundaries between different disciplines in modern experimental biology. The contributors are experts in the fields of integrative physiology, cellular evolution, control mechanisms, endocrinology, and behavioral biology. Conceived as a tribute to the 1993 International Congress of Physiological Sciences, this important work matches the immense challenge of modern biological science at the end of the twentieth century.

The Challenge of Integrative Physiology

The Logic of Life

Wat is leven? Decennia wetenschappelijk onderzoek heeft het menselijk genoom in kaart gebracht. Vanuit het perspectief van genen, zoals voorgesteld in Richard Dawkins bekende bestseller The Selfish Gene, zijn levende wezens slechts tijdelijke voertuigen voor de genetische codes. Maar in De muziek van het leven laat de wereldvermaarde fysioloog Denis Noble zien dat we voor een goed begrip van het leven voorbij de genen moeten gaan. Het genoom behelst maar één aspect van het menselijk leven. Om het leven echt te kunnen begrijpen moeten we op verschillende niveaus tegelijk kijken. Het leven is volgens Noble met een symfonie te vergelijken, waarin de bladmuziek (genen), de instrumenten (cellen), de secties in het orkest (organen) en de componist (de evolutie) allemaal even onontbeerlijk zijn. De auteur weeft deze muziekmetafoor door zijn verhaal en verduidelijkt zo ideeën die anders voor niet-wetenschappers lastig te begrijpen zijn. In een elegante, persoonlijke stijl ontwikkelt Noble een overtuigend alternatief voor Dawkins' genetisch reductionisme en beschrijft hij hoe leven voortkomt uit de even complexe als fascinerende interacties tussen verschillende niveaus binnen het organisme, en tussen organisme en omgeving. De muziek van het leven wordt in- en uitgeleid door filosoof Jos de Mul. Hij plaatst Nobles belangwekkende boek in de context van andere hedendaagse denkers over het leven, zoals Richard Dawkins, en geeft onder meer een begrijpelijk en helder overzicht van de hedendaagse evolutieleer en genetica.

biologie voorbij de genen

De muziek van het leven

The Initiation of the Heartbeat

What is Life? Decades of research have resulted in the full mapping of the human genome - three billion pairs of code whose functions are only now being understood. The gene's eye view of life, advocated by evolutionary biology, sees living bodies as mere vehicles for the replication of the genetic codes. But for a physiologist, working with the living organism, the view is a very different one. Denis Noble is a world renowned physiologist, and sets out an alternative view to the question - one that becomes deeply significant in terms of the living, breathing organism. The genome is not life itself. Noble argues that far from genes building organisms, they should be seen as prisoners of the organism. The view of life presented in this little, modern, post-genome project reflection on the nature of life, is that of the systems biologist: to understand what life is, we must view it at a variety of different levels, all interacting with each other in a complex web. It is that emergent web, full of feedback between levels, from the gene to the wider environment, that is life. It is a kind of music. Including stories from Noble's own research experience, his work on the heartbeat, musical metaphors, and elements of linguistics and Chinese culture, this very personal and at times deeply lyrical book sets out the systems biology view of life.

Biology beyond genes

Denis Noble

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