<<The>> singularity of nature a convergence of biology, chemistry and physics

Understanding how simple molecules have given rise to the complex biochemical systems and processes of contemporary biology is widely regarded as one of chemistry’s great unsolved questions. There are numerous theories as to the origins of life, the majority of which draw on the idea that DNA and nucleic acids are the central dogma of biology. The Singularity of Nature: A Convergence of Biology, Chemistry and Physics takes a systems-based approach to the origin and evolution of complex life. Readers will gain a novel understanding of physiologic evolution and the limits to our current understanding: why biology remains descriptive and non-predictive, as well as offering new opportunities for understanding relationships between physics and biology in the origins of biological life at the cellular-molecular level. Hlaf Title Title Copyright Preface Contents Chapter 1 The Singularity of Nature 1.1 Introduction 1.1.1 Prologue 1.2 On the Mechanisms of Biologic Evolution 1.3 Cell–Cell Interactions and Embryonic Pattern Formation 1.4 In the Beginning 1.5 The Driving Force Behind Biology Is Ambiguity 1.6 Evolutionary Biology Is Scale-free, Physics Is Not 1.7 The Role of Deception in Biology 1.8 Terminal Addition as Evidence of the Singularity 1.9 Proximate and Ultimate Causation – a Myth 1.10 Cell–Cell Signaling Perspective as Common Ground for Physiologic Evolution 1.11 Epigenetic Inheritance and the Primacy of the Unicellular State 1.12 Pauli's Exclusion Principle and the First Principles of Physiology 1.13 Non-localization in Physics and Biology 1.14 A Fractal View of Life 1.15 Consciousness, the Epitome of the Continuum from Inanimate to Animate 1.16 Discussion 1.17 Conclusion References Chapter 2 Bohm Meets Bacon 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Bohm's Explicate and Implicate Orders Meet the Arts 2.3 Einstein's Relativity Is Necessary to Think This Way 2.4 Conclusions References Chapter 3 The Cell, Evolution and Occam's Razor 3.1 Introduction 3.2 On the Consequences of Descriptive Biology 3.3 Revising the Standard Synthesis 3.4 The Primacy of the Unicellular State 3.5 Phenotype Is a Verb, Not a Noun 3.6 New Validity to Terminal Addition 3.7 Neoteny/Heterochrony in a New Frame 3.8 The Life Cycle Rethought 3.9 Discussion 3.9.1 Descriptive versus Cellular–Molecular Biology and Occam's Razor 3.9.2 Heliocentrism, the Age of Reason and Beyond 3.9.3 Consequences for Biomedical Research 3.10 Conclusion References Chapter 4 C.P. Snow's “Two Cultures” Condition Is Resolved by the Singularity 4.1 Empiricism as the Path from the Explicate to the Implicate Order: Common Ground for Science and the Arts 4.2 Einstein's Relativity Is Necessary to Think This Way 4.3 Conclusions References Chapter 5 The Heart Is Not Just a Pump; the Brain Is Not Your Only “Mind” 5.1 Holland's Skin-brain Hypothesis 5.2 Nicotine's Effect on N-acetylcholine Receptors Homology Between Lung and Brain 5.3 Pleiotropic Defensins Reveal Deep Physiologic Relationship Between Lung and Skin 5.4 Symmorphosis Experience as Corollary to Deep Physiology 5.5 The Brain Is Not the Mind 5.6 The Body Is Not Who We Are References Chapter 6 Why You Must Transcend Space-time in Order to Understand Consciousness 6.1 Predictive Value of Consciousness as a Fractal of the Cosmos References Chapter 7 The Evolutionary Significance of Homeostasis 7.1 Homeostasis Is Not Stasis 7.2 Bernard to Cannon 7.3 Dyshomeostasis 7.4 Waddington's Diachronic Perspective 7.5 Downward Causation 7.6 Diachronic Signaling Mechanisms Link Development, Homeostasis and Regeneration 7.7 Homeostasis, Agent for Change in the Vertebrate Water-land Transition as Emergence 7.8 Homeostasis as the Consequence of Developmental Mechanisms 7.9 Parathyroid Hormone-related Protein Regulation of Physiologic Stress 7.10 Parathyroid Hormone-related Protein Expression in Adrenal Corticoid Synthesis 7.11 Diachronic Regulation of Homeostasis 7.12 Allostasis as Integrated Homeostasis 7.13 Conclusions References Chapter 8 Networking from the Cell to Quantum Mechanics as Consciousness References Chapter 9 On Cellular Cooperativity as the Basis for Moral Behavior 9.1 Introduction 9.2 Our Physiology, Ourselves 9.3 Morality as the Unicell Ascribing to the Laws of Nature 9.4 Metabolic Cooperativity as the Basis for Biologic Morality 9.5 So Why Is There Immorality? 9.6 Morality in the Anthropocene 9.7 Altruistic Behavior in Bacteria 9.8 Discussion 9.9 Conclusion References Chapter 10 Aging, Senescence and Death as a Systematic Breakdown in Cell–Cell Communication 10.1 Introduction 10.2 Why We Age 10.3 Dying and the Microbiome 10.4 Phenotype as Agent 10.5 The Red Queen and the Singularity 10.6 Epigenetic Inheritance and Aging 10.7 Physiology as Niche Construction 10.8 Insight to Aging in the Context of Cell–Cell Signaling 10.9 Empiric Evidence for Aging as Loss of Cell–Cell Signaling 10.10 Gender Differences as Proof of Principle for Aging as Loss of Cell–Cell Signaling 10.11 Loss of Homeostatic Control Is Marked by Increased Wingless/Int Expression 10.12 Discussion References Chapter 11 A Holistic Perspective on Consciousness 11.1 Introduction 11.2 Evolution, From Its Origin 11.3 Why Do We See “Red” in Association with Pain? 11.4 Restoring Cellular Homeostasis 11.5 The Hard Problem, No Longer 11.6 The Integration of Consciousness and the Ecosystem 11.7 Human Consciousness as Cell–Cell Communication 11.8 Consciousness Revealed by Cartesian Coordinates 11.9 Consequences of the Hypothesis and Discussion References Chapter 12 Cell Division Seen as the Symmetry Breaking of the Singularity/Big Bang 12.1 Introduction 12.2 Homeostasis Is the Common Ground Between Physics and Biology 12.3 Are We in the Cosmos or of the Cosmos? 12.4 Epigenetic Inheritance 12.5 The Systematic Error in Seeing the Phenotype as Object, Not Agent 12.5.1 Yeast/Lung/Bone/Gravity 12.5.2 Turritopsis dohrnii 12.5.3 Slime Mold, or Dictyostelium discoideum 12.5.4 Nutrient Restriction Model of Metabolic Syndrome 12.5.5 Piaget's Perspective on Human Development 12.6 Discussion 12.6.1 Cell Division as the Singularity/Big Bang: Reductio Ad Absurdum of Holistic Cosmology? 12.6.2 Space-time is an Artifact References Chapter 13 Minding the Gap, or the Unicell Fills the Gap Between Proximate and Ultimate Causation 13.1 The Unicell as Resolution of the Mayr's Proximate and Ultimate Causation in Evolution References Chapter 14 The Big Bang: The Vectoral Origin of the Periodic Table and Evolution 14.1 Introduction 14.2 The Periodic Table of Elements and You 14.3 The Environment Gave Rise to Endothermy 14.4 Diachronic Vectors of the Big Bang 14.5 Information Theory Meets Informatics 14.6 Truth Be Told 14.7 There Is Only Space, There Is No Time 14.8 A Novel Prediction of Consciousness as the Singularity 14.9 The Vertical Integration of Gravity, Chemistry and Biology as Consciousness 14.10 Biology and Chemistry as Vectors of the Big Bang 14.11 Conclusions References Chapter 15 The Physiological and Evolutionary Significance of Deuterostomy 15.1 Early Embryologic Developmental Differences Between Protostomes and Deuterostomes 15.2 Evolution of Endothermy as Positive Selection for Bipedalism and Specialization of Forelimbs: Universal Consciousness as Past/Present/Future 15.3 Plasticity of the Foregut 15.4 The Phylogeny of the Thyroid 15.5 An Evolutionary Vertical Integration of the Phylogeny and Ontogeny of the Thyroid 15.6 Plasticity of the Vagus 15.7 Acquisition of Epigenetic Marks Overlayed on the above Makes for a Highly Robust Form of Consciousness 15.8 “From Horizontal to Vertical”, or the Grand Synthesis 15.9 Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny – Ernst Haeckel Was Right 15.10 Gravity Is the “Stretching” of the Fabric of Space-Time; So Too Is the Stretching of the Swim Bladder or Lung 15.11 Gastrulation, Epigenetic Inheritance, Formation of the Coelomic Membrane Covering the Reptilian/Bird Lung 15.12 On the Endocrine System and Vertebrate Evolution 15.13 The Commutative Principle as the Basis for the “Kaleidoscope” of Physiologic Adaptation 15.14 Discussion References Chapter 16 We Are All Denizens of Gaia 16.1 Gaia Is Us 16.2 Phenotypic Variation as Agency for Epigenetic Inheritance 16.3 On the Evolution of Metazoans 16.4 Consciousness as the Product of Gaia – Why We Inherently Care About Mother Earth 16.5 Morality as Gaia 16.6 Climate Change, Gaia and Us References Chapter 17 Cell–Cell Signaling, the Energy Flow from the Big Bang to Civilization References Chapter 18 The Physics of Biology Conforms to the Singularity References Chapter 19 Foundational Physicochemical Principles Drive Human Economics 19.1 Basic Principles of Cellular Cooperation 19.2 Cellular Principles Drive Human Economics 19.3 Cellular Principles, Trading and Behavioral Economics 19.4 Conclusion References Chapter 20 Singularity, Life and Mind: New Wave Organicism 20.1 Introduction 20.2 Singularity and Nature 20.3 On the Causal-processual Mechanisms of Biological Evolution 20.4 Biology as a Continuum 20.5 Conscious Mind and Its Emergence in the Continuum from Inanimate to Animate 20.6 Mind is a Form of Life 1: Solving the Mind–Body Problem 20.7 Dynamic Systems Theory and the Dynamic World Picture 20.8 Mind is a Form of Life 2: Solving the Free Will Problem 20.9 Thoreau and the Transcendence of the Cell–Cell Communication Approach to Evolution 20.10 The First Waves of Organicist Philosophy, Organicist Science, and Organicist Modernism; and What Went Wrong Between Philosophy and Science after 1950 20.11 The Second Waves of Organicist Philosophy, Organicist Science, and Organicist Modernism 20.12 Conclusion References Chapter 21 Conclusion: The Singularity Unites the Cosmos Subject Index "Understanding how simple molecules have given rise to the complex biochemical systems and processes of contemporary biology is widely regarded as one of chemistry’s great unsolved questions. There are numerous theories as to the origins of life, the majority of which draw on the idea that DNA and nucleic acids are the central dogma of biology. The Singularity of Nature: A Convergence of Biology, Chemistry and Physics takes a systems-based approach to the origin and evolution of complex life. Readers will gain a novel understanding of physiologic evolution and the limits to our current understanding: why biology remains descriptive and non-predictive, as well as offering new opportunities for understanding relationships between physics and biology in the origins of biological life at the cellular-molecular level." --From publisher's description