The Dual Nature of Life: Interplay of the Individual and the Genome (The Frontiers Collection)

Annotation Life is a diverse and ubiquitous phenomenon on Earth, characterized by fundamental features distinguishing living bodies from nonliving material. Yet it is also so complex that it has long defied precise definition. This book from a seasoned biologist offers new insights into the nature of life by illuminating a fascinating architecture of dualities inherent in its existence and propagation. Life is connected with individual living beings, yet it is also a collective and inherently global phenomenon of the material world. It embodies a dual existence of cycles of phenotypic life, and their unseen driver an uninterrupted march of genetic information whose collective immortality is guaranteed by individual mortality. Although evolution propagates and tunes species of organisms, the beings produced can be regarded merely as tools for the survival and cloning of genomes written in an unchanging code. What are the physical versus informational bases and driving forces of life, and how do they unite as an integrated system? What does time mean for individuals, life on the global scale, and the underlying information? This accessible examination of principles and evidence shows that a network of dualities lies at the heart of biological puzzles that have engaged the human mind for millennia Front Matter....Pages i-xii Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Life on Earth....Pages 3-18 Material Basis of Life....Pages 19-35 Origin and Development of Life....Pages 37-43 Discreteness, Order, Organization, and Integrity....Pages 45-51 Living Systems....Pages 53-56 Life States....Pages 57-62 Front Matter....Pages 63-63 A Mode and a Tool of Life....Pages 65-71 Cells and Organisms....Pages 73-80 Reproduction and Individual Development....Pages 81-93 Evolution....Pages 95-111 Homeostasis and the Maintenance of Integrity....Pages 113-122 Ageing and Death of Individuals....Pages 123-134 Bodies, Processes, Mechanisms and Interactions....Pages 137-140 Strategy of Biological Catalysis....Pages 141-150 Strategy of Copying....Pages 151-155 Strategy of Self-Organization....Pages 157-163 Strategy of Matter and Energy Transformation....Pages 165-182 Cell Mechanisms....Pages 183-190 Physiological Mechanisms....Pages 191-198 Front Matter....Pages 199-199 Biological Information and Cybernetics....Pages 201-218 Front Matter....Pages 199-199 Genetic Information....Pages 219-227 Genes and Genomes....Pages 229-240 Functional Systems of Genes....Pages 241-250 Genetic Continuity....Pages 251-258 Front Matter....Pages 259-259 Body and Intelligence Duality....Pages 261-262 Genomes and Their Bodies....Pages 263-275 Bodies and Associated Phenomena....Pages 277-285 Back Matter....Pages 287-298