Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Engineering

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Molecular Theory of the Living Cell

  • 1378 Accesses

Abstract

The term “cybernetics” comes from the Greek Кυβερνήτη or kybernētēs, meaning “steersman,” “governor,” “pilot,” or “rudder.” Plato used the term to refer to government, but the term became widely used in modern times after Nobert Wiener published his book in 1948 entitled “Cybernetics, or control and communication in the animal and machine” (Wiener 1948). As the subtitle suggests, cybernetics is the science of control and communication in machines, both artificial and biological, that are endowed with the ability to achieve specific goals through feedback interactions. Both control and communication implicate information. Communication is concerned with encoding, transmitting, and decoding information, while control utilizes information. Hence, cybernetics can be considered to subsume information theory (see Sect. 4.3 for the concept of information).

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Ashby, W.R.: An Introduction to Cybernetics. Metuen & Co, London (1964)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bacciagaluppi, G., Valenti, A.: Quantum Theory at the Crossroads: Reconsidering the 1927 Solvay Conference. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2009)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Barab, P.: The Complementary Nature of Reality. Open Way Press, Portland, Oregon (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohr, N.: Light and life. Nature. 133, 421–423 (1933) (Part 1) and 457–459 (Part 2).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohr, N.: Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature (The Philosophical Writings of Niels Bohr, vol. 1. Ox Bow Press, Woodbridge (1934)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohr, N.: Quantum physics and philosophy - causality and complementarity. In: Klibansky, R. (ed.) Philosophy in the Mid-Century. La Nouva Editrice, Florence (1958)

    Google Scholar 

  • Dellaire, G.: Nuclear compartment: Nuclear pore. http://npd.hgu.mrc.ac.uk/compartments/nuc_pore.html (2007)

  • Englert, B.-G., Scully, M.O., Walther, H.: The Duality in Matter and Light, pp. 86–92. Sci. Am, December (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  • Frauenfelder, H., McMahon, B.H., Austin, R.H., Chu, K., Groves, J.T.: The role of tructure, energy landscape, dynamics, and allostery in the enzymatic function of myoglobin. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 98(5), 2370–74 (2001)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Frieden, B.R.: Sciecne from Fisher Information: A Unification. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK (2004)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Halle, J.-P., Meisterernst, M.: Gene expression: increasing evidence for a transcriptosome. Trends Genet. 12(5), 161–163 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herbert, N.: Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics, An Excursion into Metaphysics, p. 64. Anchor Books, Garden City (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hofstadter, D.R.: Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. Basic Books, New York (1980)

    Google Scholar 

  • Jaynes, E.T.: Information theory and statistical mechanics. Phys. Rev. 106, 620–630 (1957a)

    Article  MathSciNet  ADS  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Jaynes, E.T.: Information theory and statistical mechanics II. Phys. Rev. 108, 171–190 (1957b)

    Article  MathSciNet  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Jencks, W.: Binding energy, specificity, and enzymic catalysis: the circe effect. Adv. Enzymol. 43, 219–410 (1975)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ji, S.: Energy and negentropy in enzymic catalysis. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 227, 419–437 (1974a)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Ji, S.: The bhopalator – a molecular model of the living cell based on the concepts of conformons and dissipative structures. J. Theor. Biol. 116, 399–426 (1985a)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ji, S.: The Bhopalator: a molecular model of the living cell. Asian J. Exp. Sci 1, 1–33 (1985b)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ji, S.: The bhopalator – a molecular model of the living cell; New developments. In: Mishra, R.K. (ed.) Molecular and Biological Physics of Living Systems, pp. 187–214. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht (1990)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Ji, S.: Biocybernetics: a machine theory of biology. In: Ji, S. (ed.) Molecular Theories of Cell Life and Death, pp. 1–237. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick (1991)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ji, S.: Complementarism: A new dialogue between science and religion based on modern biology, In: Proceedings of the Fourth KSEA (Korean Scientists and Engineers Association in America) Northeast Regional Conference, pp. 319–328. Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, N.J (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ji, S.: Complementarism: a biology-based philosophical framework to integrate western science and eastern tao, in Psychotherapy East and West: Integration of Psychotherapies, pp. 517–548. Korean Academy of Psychotherapists, 178–23 Sungbuk-dong, Songbuk-ku, Seoul 136–020, Korea (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ji, S.: The cell as the smallest DNA-based molecular computer. Biosystems 52, 123–133 (1999a)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ji, S.: Free energy and information contents of Conformons in proteins and DNA. Biosystems 54, 107–130 (2000)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ji, S.: Molecular information theory: solving the mysteries of DNA. In: Ciobanu, G., Rozenberg, G. (eds.) Modeling in Molecular Biology, Natural Computing Series, pp. 141–150. Springer, Berlin (2004a)

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Ji, S. (2004b).: Semiotics of life: a unified theory of molecular machines, cells, the mind, peircean signs, and the universe based on the principle of information- energy complementarity. In: Reports, Research Group on Mathematical Linguistics, XVII Tarragona Seminar on Formal Syntax and Semantics, Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona, Spain, 23–27 April 2003. Available at Google and at http://grammars.grlmc.com/GRLMC/reports/SOLManuscriptsubmitted_final.doc

  • Ji, S.: Taxonomy of entropy-information relations based on the complementarian logic. See Appendix II. Mailing List complex-science@necsi.org Message #6768 (2004c)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ji, S.: Soft-state semiconductors of conformons. http://www.necsi.edu/community/forum/viewtopic.php?id=22 (2006e)

  • Kelso, J.A.S., EngstrØm, D.A.: The Complementary Nature. The MIT Press, Cambrdige (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  • Koshland Jr., D.E.: Application of a theory of enzyme specificity to protein synthesis. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 44, 98–104 (1958)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Kosko, B.: Fuzzy Thinking: The New Science of Fuzzy Logic. Hyperion, New York (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  • Lenhardt, J.M., Ong, M.T., Choe, R., Evenhuis, C.R., Martinez, T.J., Craig, S.L.: Trapping a diradical transition state by mechanochemical polymer extension. Science 329(5995), 1057–60 (2010)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Libbrecht, K.G.: A Snowflake Primer. www.its.caltech.edu/…/primer/primer.htm (2008)

  • Lindley, D.: Uncertainty: Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science. Anchor Books, New York (2008)

    Google Scholar 

  • Lloyd, S.: Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos. Alfred A Knopf, New York (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  • Lu, H.P., Xun, L., Xie, X.S.: Single-molecule enzymatic dynamics. Science 282, 1877–1882 (1998)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • McNeill, D., Freiberger, P.: Fuzzy Logic: The Revolutionary Computer Technology That Is Changing our World. Simon & Schuster, New York (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  • Morrison, M.A.: Understanding Quantum Physics: A User’s Manual, p. 169. Prentice Hall, Englewood (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  • Murdoch, D.: Niels Bohr’s Philosophy of Physics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1987)

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Pais, A.: Niels Bohrs’ Times, in Physics, Philosophy, and Polity, pp. 438–447. Clarendon Press, Oxford (1991)

    Google Scholar 

  • Peirce, C.S.: The categories defined. In: Houser, N. (ed.) The Essential Peirce: Selected Philosophical Writings, Volume 2 (1893–1913), pp. 160–178. Indiana University Press, Bloomington (1903)

    Google Scholar 

  • Plotnitsky, A.: Reading Bohr: Physics and Philosophy. Springer, Kindle Edition (2006)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Polanyi, M.: Life’s irreducible structure: live mechanisms and information in DNA are boundary conditions with a sequence of boundaries above them. Science 160, 1308–1312 (1968)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Pribram, K.H.: An Instantiation of eccles Brain/Mind dualism and Beyond. In: Amoroso, R.L. (ed.) Complementarity of Mind and Body: Realizing the Dream of Descartes, Einstein and Eccles. Nova Science Publishers, New York (2010)

    Google Scholar 

  • Prigogine, I.: Dissipative structures and biological order. Adv. Biol. Med. Phys. 16, 99–113 (1977)

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Prigogine, I.: From Being To Becoming: Time and complexity in Physical Sciences, pp. 19–26. W. H. Freeman and Company, San Francisco (1980)

    Google Scholar 

  • Ricard, J.: Emergent Collective Properties, Networks and Information in Biology. Elsevier, Amsterdam (2006)

    Google Scholar 

  • Sawada, D., Caley, M.: Complementarity: a recursive revision appropriate to human science. Anthropol. Conscious. 4(2), 1–8 (1993). page. Available at http:/www.anthrosource.net

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shadowitz, A.: Special Relativity, pp. 84–105. Dover Publications, New York (1968)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Wheeler, J.A.: Information, physics, quantum: the seaerch for links. In: Zurek, W.H. (ed.) Complexity, Entropy and the Physics of Information, pp. 3–28. Addison- Wesley Publishing Company, Redwood City (1990)

    Google Scholar 

  • Wicken, J.S.: Entropy and information: suggestions for common language. Phil. Sci. 54, 176–193 (1987)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Wiener, N.: Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine. The Technology Press, Cambridge (1948)

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkinson, R.H.: A method of generating functions of several variables using analog diode logic. IEEE Trans electron Comput EC12, 112–129 (1963)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wolfram, S.: A New Kind of Science. Wolfram Media, Champaign (2002)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Xie, X.S.: Single-molecule approach to enzymology. Single Mol. 2(4), 229–239 (2001)

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  • Zadeh, L.A.: Fuzzy sets. Info and Control 8(3), 338–353 (1965)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Zadeh, L.A.: Discussion: probability theory and fuzzy logic are complementary rather than competitive. Technometrics 37(3), 271–276 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zadeh, L.A.: Fuzyy logic: computing with words. IEEE Trans. Fuzzy Syst. 4(2), 103–111 (1996a)

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Zadeh, L.A.: Fuzzy Sets, Fuzzy Logic, Fuzzy Systems. World Scientific Press, Singapore (1996b)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Pharmacol. & Toxicol. Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ, 08854, USA

    Sungchul Ji PhD

Authors
  1. Sungchul Ji PhD
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sungchul Ji PhD .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Ji, S. (2012). Engineering. In: Molecular Theory of the Living Cell. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2152-8_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-2152-8_5

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-2151-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-2152-8

  • eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation