How should living systems be studied? -- Constructive biology -- Basic concepts in dynamical systems -- Origin of bioinformation -- Origin of a cell with recursive growth -- Universal statistics of a cell with recursive growth -- Cell differentiation and development -- Irreversible differentiation from stem cell and robust development -- Pattern formation and origin of positional information -- Genetic evolution with phenotypic fluctuations -- Speciation as a fixation of phenotypic differentiation -- Conclusion
Summary
"This book examines life not from the reductionist point of view, but rather asks the question: what are the universal properties of living systems and how can one construct from there a phenomenological theory of life that leads naturally to complex processes such as reproductive cellular systems, evolution and differentiation? The presentation has been deliberately kept fairly non-technical so as to address a broad spectrum of students and researchers from the natural sciences and informatics."--Jacket
Notes
Based in part on a Japanese work published in 2003 by the University of Tokyo Press--cf. Preface
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 349-364) and index
