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  1. Introduction to New Perspectives in Biology

    Introduction to New Perspectives in Biology

    Essays for the Luca Cardelli Fest


    This note introduces work in Theoretical Biology in the book: Perspectives on Organisms: Biological Time, Symmetries and Singularities.

    Abstract

    This note introduces recent work in Theoretical Biology by borrowing from the Introduction (chapter 1) of the book by the authors: "Perspectives on Organisms: Biological Time, Symmetries and Singularities", Springer, 2014. The idea is to work towards a Theory of Organisms analogue and along the Theory of Evolution, where ontogenesis could be considered as part of phylogenesis. As a matter of fact, the latter is made out of "segments" of the first: phylogenesis is the "sum" of ontogenetic paths and they should be made intelligible by similar principles. To this aim, we look at ontogenesis from different perspectives. By this, we shed light on the unity of the organism from different points of view, yet constantly keeping that unity as a core invariant. The analysis of invariance, as the result of theoretical symmetries, and of symmetry changes, is a key theme of the approach in the book and in the discussion in this note.

    Citation
    Longo, G., and Maël Montévil. 2014. “Introduction to New Perspectives in Biology.” In Essays for the Luca Cardelli Fest, edited by Martin Abadi, Philippa Gardner, Andrew D. Gordon, and Radu Mardare, 187–201. MSR-TR-2014-104. Microsoft Research. http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=226237
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