Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- About the authors
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction: does information matter?
- Part I History
- Part II Physics
- Part III Biology
- 7 The concept of information in biology
- 8 What is missing from theories of information?
- 9 Information and communication in living matter
- 10 Semiotic freedom: an emerging force
- 11 Care on Earth: generating informed concern
- Part IV Philosophy and Theology
- Index
- References
7 - The concept of information in biology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2014
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- About the authors
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction: does information matter?
- Part I History
- Part II Physics
- Part III Biology
- 7 The concept of information in biology
- 8 What is missing from theories of information?
- 9 Information and communication in living matter
- 10 Semiotic freedom: an emerging force
- 11 Care on Earth: generating informed concern
- Part IV Philosophy and Theology
- Index
- References
Summary
The use of informational terms is widespread in molecular and developmental biology. The usagedates back to Weismann. In both protein synthesis and in later development, genes are symbols, inthat there is no necessary connection between their form (sequence) and their effects. The sequenceof a gene has been determined by past natural selection, because of the effects it produces. Inbiology, the use of informational terms implies intentionality, in that both the form of the signal,and the response to it, have evolved by selection. Where an engineer sees design, a biologist seesnatural selection.
A central idea in contemporary biology is that of information. Developmental biology can be seenas the study of how information in the genome is translated into adult structure, and evolutionarybiology of how the information came to be there in the first place. Our excuse for writing a chapterconcerning topics as diverse as the origins of genes, of cells, and of language is that all areconcerned with the storage and transmission of information.
(Szathmáry and Maynard Smith, 1995)Let us begin with the notions involved in classical information theory…These concepts donot apply to DNA because they presuppose a genuine information system, which is composed of a coder,a transmitter, a receiver, a decoder, and an information channel in between. No such components areapparent in a chemical system (Apter and Wolpert, 1965). To describe chemical processes with thehelp of linguistic metaphors such as “transcription” and “translation”does not alter the chemical nature of these processes. After all, a chemical process is not a signalthat carries a message. Furthermore, even if there were such a thing as information transmissionbetween molecules, transmission would be nearly noiseless (that is, substantially nonrandom), sothat the concept of probability, central to the theory of information, does not apply to this kindof alleged information transfer.
(Mahner and Bunge, 1997)It is clear from these quotations that there is something to talk about. I shall be concernedonly with the use of information concepts in genetics, evolution, and development, and not inneurobiology, which I am not competent to discuss.
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Information and the Nature of RealityFrom Physics to Metaphysics, pp. 157 - 185Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014
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