This book is based on papers presented at a Symposium held in Seoul, Korea in 1992. The idea for the symposium developed naturally from work in which Professor Yung E Earm, at Seoul National University, had been involved both in my laboratory in Oxford and in his own laboratory in Seoul concerning the possible role of certain amino acids, like taurine that are strongly concentrated by the cells of the heart, and the relationship between such acids and membrane ionic currents. The first obvious question was whether it is possible to identify the transport mechanisms involved for taurine and whether they are electrogenic. The second question is what function could be served by such processes: does taurine play an essential role in cardiac tissue and is this important in protecting the heart from disease? With his colleagues in the Korean Physiological Society, Professor Earm set about the task of fmancing and organizing a meeting at which some of the world's leading cardiac electrophysiologists and taurine specialists could discuss these questions. The fmance was generously provided by the Dong-A Pharmaceutical Company, one of the leading scientific companies in Korea.

* Written by an interdisciplinary group of specialists from the arts, humanities and sciences at Oxford University * Suitable for a wide non-academic readership, and will appeal to anyone with an interest in mathematics, science and philosophy.

* Written by an interdisciplinary group of specialists from the arts, humanities and sciences at Oxford University * Suitable for a wide non-academic readership, and will appeal to anyone with an interest in mathematics, science and philosophy.

Exosomes: A Clinical Compendium is a comprehensive and authoritative account of exosomes in the context of biomarkers, diagnostics, and therapeutics across a wide spectrum of medical disciplines, as well as their role in cell-cell communication. It is intended to serve as a reference source for clinicians, physicians, and research scientists who wish to gain insight into the most recent advances in this rapidly growing field. The exosome revolution may well be the greatest advance in physiology and medicine since antibiotics. The discovery of their epigenetic role in intercellular signaling in virtually all tissues is a major breakthrough in our understanding of how cells function.

This is a scientific and philosophical autobiography written around a collection of Denis Noble's most significant papers. It traces a remarkable journey from na ve reductionism to a rigorous systems approach to living systems. It is rigorous because Denis Noble was one of the first biologists to construct computer models of cells and organs of the body. His theoretical work is entirely mathematically based, with no room for ambiguity. Far from the denigration of the systems approach as holistic 'hand-waving', his work is now regarded by pharmaceutical companies and regulators as the gold standard of modelling in the development of new medication.

Systems Biology is an idea in search of a definition. This book explains why this is true: it is an approach rather than a subject. Denis Noble's work is one of the clearest examples of the systems approach in practice since it reveals the nature of some of the forms of downward causation in multilevel analysis. The story will delight readers who like to see how scientific controversy is resolved, since many of the developments described in each chapter were highly controversial when they occurred.

First published in 1989, Goals, No-Goals and Own Goals presents a stimulating debate between three scientists and three philosophers about the significance and nature of goal-directed and intentional behaviour. At one extreme David McFarland brings into radical question the need for either of these concepts, at least in the scientific study of animal behaviour. At the other extreme, Alan Montefiore argues that such concepts are indispensable to any explication of the meaningful use of language and that we must therefore acknowledge their importance in understanding the nature of human behaviour. Denis Noble uses arguments drawn from computer science and physiology to show that it is incorrect to regard intentions as causes of neural events, even though it is correct to regard intentionality as responsible for our actions. Shawn Lockery outlines how intentional behaviour might be subjected to physiological study. Kathy Wilkes widens the debate by asking some basic questions about the nature of explanation and finally, Daniel Dennett argues how the study of animal behaviour might inform research in Artificial Intelligence. This book will be a useful resource for scholars and researchers of cognitive science, philosophy, psychology, linguistics and physiology.

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.

In this thought-provoking book, Denis Noble formulates the theory of biological relativity, emphasising that living organisms operate at multiple levels of complexity and must therefore be analysed from a multi-scale, relativistic perspective. Noble explains that all biological processes operate by means of molecular, cellular and organismal networks. The interactive nature of these fundamental processes is at the core of biological relativity and, as such, challenges simplified molecular reductionism. Noble shows that such an integrative view emerges as the necessary consequence of the rigorous application of mathematics to biology. Drawing on his pioneering work in the mathematical physics of biology, he shows that what emerges is a deeply humane picture of the role of the organism in constraining its chemistry, including its genes, to serve the organism as a whole, especially in the interaction with its social environment. This humanistic, holistic approach challenges the common gene-centred view held by many in modern biology and culture.

This book is based on papers presented at a Symposium held in Seoul, Korea in 1992. The idea for the symposium developed naturally from work in which Professor Yung E Earm, at Seoul National University, had been involved both in my laboratory in Oxford and in his own laboratory in Seoul concerning the possible role of certain amino acids, like taurine that are strongly concentrated by the cells of the heart, and the relationship between such acids and membrane ionic currents. The first obvious question was whether it is possible to identify the transport mechanisms involved for taurine and whether they are electrogenic. The second question is what function could be served by such processes: does taurine play an essential role in cardiac tissue and is this important in protecting the heart from disease? With his colleagues in the Korean Physiological Society, Professor Earm set about the task of fmancing and organizing a meeting at which some of the world's leading cardiac electrophysiologists and taurine specialists could discuss these questions. The fmance was generously provided by the Dong-A Pharmaceutical Company, one of the leading scientific companies in Korea.

The gene's eye view of life, proposed in Richard Dawkins acclaimed bestseller The Selfish Gene, sees living bodies as mere vehicles for the replication of genetic codes. But in The Music of Life, world renowned physiologist Denis Noble argues that, to truly understand life, we must look beyond the "selfish gene" to consider life on a much wider variety of levels.
Life, Noble asserts, is a kind of music, a symphonic interplay between genes, cells, organs, body, and environment. He weaves this musical metaphor throughout this personal and deeply lyrical work, illuminating ideas that might otherwise be daunting to non-scientists. In elegant prose, Noble sets out a cutting-edge alternative to the gene's eye view, offering a radical switch of perception in which genes are seen as prisoners and the organism itself is a complex system of many interacting levels. In his more expansive view, life emerges as a process, the ebb and flow of activity in an intricate web of connections. He introduces readers to the realm of systems biology, a field that has been growing in strength in the past decade. Noble, himself one of the founders of this field, argues modern systems biology may be the view we need to adopt to gain a deeper understanding of the nature of life.
Drawing on his experiences in his research on the heartbeat, and on evolutionary biology, development, medicine, philosophy, linguistics, and Chinese culture, Noble presents us with a profound and very modern reflection on the nature of life.