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Biological development, how organisms acquire their form, is one of
the great frontiers in science. While a vast knowledge of the
molecules involved in development has been gained in recent
decades, big questions remain on the molecular organization and
physics that shape cells, tissues and organisms. Physical
scientists and biologists traditionally have very different
backgrounds and perspectives, yet some of the fundamental questions
in developmental biology will only be answered by combining
expertise from a range of disciplines. This book is a personal
account by Professor Lionel Harrison of an interdisciplinary
approach to studying biological pattern formation. It articulates
the power of studying dynamics in development: that to understand
how an organism is made we must not only know the structure of its
molecules; we must also understand how they interact and how fast
they do so.
Development of the shapes of living organisms and their parts is a
field of science in which there are no generally accepted
theoretical principles. What form these principles are likely to
take, when they emerge, is a subject in which there is a wide gulf
of disagreement between physical scientists and experimental
biologists. This book contains both an extensive philosophical
commentary on this dichotomy in views and an exposition of the type
of theory most favoured by physical scientists. In this theory
living form is a manifestation of the dynamics of chemical change
and physical transport or other physics of spatial communication.
The reaction-diffusion theory, as initiated by Turing in 1952 and
since elaborated by Prigogine and by Gierer and Meinhardt among
others, is discussed in detail at a level that requires a good
knowledge of a first course in calculus, but no more than that.
Development of the shapes of living organisms and their parts is a
field of science in which there are no generally accepted
theoretical principles. What form these principles are likely to
take, when they emerge, is a subject in which there is a wide gulf
of disagreement between physical scientists and experimental
biologists. This book contains both an extensive philosophical
commentary on this dichotomy in views and an exposition of the type
of theory most favoured by physical scientists. In this theory
living form is a manifestation of the dynamics of chemical change
and physical transport or other physics of spatial communication.
The reaction-diffusion theory, as initiated by Turing in 1952 and
since elaborated by Prigogine and by Gierer and Meinhardt among
others, is discussed in detail at a level that requires a good
knowledge of a first course in calculus, but no more than that.
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