Overview
- Editors:
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Erik Mosekilde
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Physics Department, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
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Ole G. Mouritsen
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Department of Physical Chemistry, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
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Table of contents (14 chapters)
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Introduction
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- Erik Mosekilde, Ole G. Mouritsen
Pages 1-3
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Pattern Formation in Chemical Systems
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- S. C. Müller, A. Warda, V. S. Zykov
Pages 7-22
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- Igor Schreiber, Miloš Marek
Pages 23-47
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- P. Borckmans, O. Jensen, V. O. Pannbacker, E. Mosekilde, G. Dewel, A. De Wit
Pages 48-73
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Biological Patterns
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- Ole G. Mouritsen, Kent Jørgensen, John Hjort Ipsen, M. M. Sperotto
Pages 77-100
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- J. R. Thomson, Wm Cowan, K. R. Elder, Ph. Daviet, G. Soga, Z. Zhang et al.
Pages 101-127
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Dynamics of Biological Macromolecules
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Front Matter
Pages 129-129
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- Olaf S. Andersen, Jens A. Lundbæk, Jeffrey Girshman
Pages 131-155
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Physiological Control Systems
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Front Matter
Pages 165-165
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- N.-H. Holstein-Rathlou, K. H. Chon, D. J. Marsh, V. Z. Marmarelis
Pages 167-185
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- Li. Mosekilde, J. S. Thomsen, E. Mosekilde
Pages 186-204
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- Henrik Seidel, Hanspeter Herzel
Pages 205-229
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- Anne Beuter, Anne de Geoffroy
Pages 230-248
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Complex Ecologies and Evolution
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Front Matter
Pages 249-249
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- H. Flyvbjerg, P. Bak, M. H. Jensen, K. Sneppen
Pages 269-288
About this book
The development of a proper description of the living world today stands as one of the most significant challenges to physics. A variety of new experimental techniques in molecular biology, microbiol ogy, physiology and other fields of biological research constantly expand our knowledge and enable us to make increasingly more detailed functional and structural descriptions. Over the past decades, the amount and complexity of available information have multiplied dramatically, while at the same time our basic understanding of the nature of regulation, behavior, morphogenesis and evolution in the living world has made only modest progress. A key obstacle is clearly the proper handling of the available data. This requires a stronger emphasis on mathematical modeling through which the consistency of the adopted explanations can be checked, and general princi ples may be extracted. As an even more serious problem, however, it appears that the proper physical concepts for the development of a theoretically oriented biology have not hitherto been available. Classical mechanics and equilibrium thermody namics, for instance, are inappropriate and useless in some of the most essen tial biological contexts. Fortunately, there is now convincing evidence that the concepts and methods of the newly developed fields of nonlinear dynam ics and complex systems theory, combined with irreversible thermodynamics and far-from-equilibrium statistical mechanics will enable us to move ahead with many of these problems.
Editors and Affiliations
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Physics Department, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
Erik Mosekilde
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Department of Physical Chemistry, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
Ole G. Mouritsen