AC.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN-10 1-4020-5417-3 (HB)
ISBN-13 978-1-4020-5417-4 (HB)
ISBN-10 1-4020-5418-1 (e-book)
ISBN-13 978-1-4020-5418-1 (e-book)
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1 Introduction ....................................................................................... 1
2. Ingredients of the simplest cells ........................................................ 7
(Prokaryotes and the sizes of their contents)
3. Bigger cells ..................................................................................... 17
(Eukaryotic cells and their contents)
4. Hives of industry ............................................................................. 29
(A survey of intermediary metabolism)
5. Delights of transport . ...................................................................... 39
(How the cell’s contents are moved around)
6. As if standing still ........................................................................... 49
(Cellular homeostasis and regulatory processes)
7. Internal state and gene expression .................................................. 57
(Transcription and its control)
8. Sustaining and changing the internal state ...................................... 67
(The interrelationship between gene expression and the cell’s
current composition and functional state)
9. Responding to the environment ..................................................... 79
(Signal processing, gene expression and internal state)
10. The living state ................................................................................ 91
(A characterization of ‘life’)
11. Stability and change in DNA ........................................................ 105
12. The spice of life ........................................................................... 117
13. Curriculum vitae ........................................................................... 131
(An outline history of life on Earth)
14. The origin of life ........................................................................... 147
(Some major ideas and unanswered questions)
15. Other worlds ................................................................................. 163
16. Intelligent behaviour and brains ....................................................
(The biological meaning of “intelligence”)
17. Human evolution ........................................................................... 195
(Human intelligence and the question of human uniqueness)
18.
Cells, brains and computers: towards a characterisation
of mind .......................................................................................... 209
Glossary and pronunciation guide ..................................................... 223
Further reading ...................................................................................
Index ....................................................................................................
vi Table of Contents
(How genes can be altered)
(Diversity, natural selection and symbiosis )
(The possibility of extraterrestrial life )
PREFACE
Thanks to the popular media, and to books by Dawkins, Fortey, Gould,
Margulis and other writers, people are informed about many aspects of
biology. Everyone seems to know a little about evolution, for example, and
about DNA and the possibilities (good and bad) afforded by research in
molecular genetics. Most people know some of the arguments for and
against the likelihood of life on other planets. And so on. We are glad that
these pieces of information have become so widely available. However, we
do not assume any particular knowledge (other than the most basic) in this
book. Our aim is to address general questions rather than specific issues.
We want to enable our readers to join their disparate pieces of knowledge
about biology together.
The most basic of these general questions – and perhaps the most difficult –
can be expressed in beguilingly simple words: “What is life”? What does
modern biology tell us about the essential differences between living
organisms and the inanimate world? An attempt to answer this question
takes us on a journey through almost the whole of contemporary cell and
molecular biology, which occupies the first half of the book. The journey is
worth the effort. The provisional answer we attain provides a coherent,
unifying context in which we can discuss evolution, the origin of life,
extraterrestrial life, the meaning of “intelligence”, the evolution of the
human brain and the nature of mind. In other words, it enables us – as we
said - to help our readers to join their disparate pieces of information
together.
Although we assume virtually no knowledge of biology and use nontechnical
language as far as possible, we cannot avoid using some technical
terms. These will be unfamiliar to many readers, so we have added a
glossary and pronunciation guide after the final chapter.
We intend this book to be the first volume of a trilogy. In the second
volume we plan to explore what science is, and why scientific thinking
originated and flourished in western society. We want to investigate the
genes, cloning, genetic modification of crops, the obliteration of habitats, the
extinction of species, and so on. This first volume is a prelude to these
viii Preface
differs from them. In the third book, we hope to explore the most
future projects.
While we have done our best to distil the basic concepts that guide biology today,
controversial topics associated with biology today: patenting of human
informed readers are likely to consider parts of the text to be in need of
ways in which biology resembles other sciences and the ways in which it
revision or correction. We shall be glad of critical feedback.
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