Biological laws
“Physicists come from a tradition of looking for all-encompassing laws, but
is this the best approach to use when probing complex biological systems?”
This question was posed by Evelyn Fox Keller in an essay published in Nature
(Nature 445, 603 (8 February 2007)). Does biology have laws
of its own that are universally applicable?
“Today, biologists are faced with an avalanche of data, made available by
genomics and by the development of instruments that track biological processes
in unprecedented detail. To unpack how proteins, genes and metabolites operate
as components of complex networks, modeling and other quantitative tools that
are well established in the physical sciences — as well as the involvement
of physical scientists — are fast becoming an essential part of biological
practice.”
Apparently traditional mathematical tools are of little help to deal with
biological complexity. Physicists yearn for some kind of a law which might
serve as a starting point in their effort. Evelyn Fox Keller is concerned
that biologists often pay little attention to debates in the philosophy of
science, like whether there are laws of biology. As if these issues were
solved in the exact sciences.
All these so called laws of physics are no more than models that were extremely
successful in describing many aspects of our reality and fail to untangle
the complexity of life. Yet life is an essential part of our reality which
cannot be ignored anymore. In his book Phenomenon of Life (1)
Hans Jonas states that most of what we encounter on the surface of
earth is intimately intertwined with the dynamics of life.
A fact which was hitherto ignored by the exact sciences, which attempt to
understand (describe) life by reducing it non life (matter).
In order to proceed the exact sciences ought to get
rid of their conceptual crutches, which they regard as universal
laws. Like Newton’s “laws” which were never relevant to biological processes.
Additional reading: Physics as a fable
References
1. Hans Jonas The Phenomenon of Life- Toward a Philosophical Biology
Northwestern University Press Evanston Ill 2001
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