So Simple a Beginning: How Four Physical Principles Shape Our Living World - Softcover

Parthasarathy, Raghuveer

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    143 ratings by Goodreads
 
9780691258676: So Simple a Beginning: How Four Physical Principles Shape Our Living World
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0691258678 ISBN 13: 9780691258676
Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2024

Synopsis

A biophysicist reveals the hidden unity behind nature’s breathtaking complexity

The form and function of a sprinting cheetah are quite unlike those of a rooted tree. A human being is very different from a bacterium or a zebra. The living world is a realm of dazzling variety, yet a shared set of physical principles shapes the forms and behaviors of every creature in it. So Simple a Beginning shows how the emerging new science of biophysics is transforming our understanding of life on Earth and enabling potentially lifesaving but controversial technologies such as gene editing, artificial organ growth, and ecosystem engineering.

Raghuveer Parthasarathy explains how four basic principles—self-assembly, regulatory circuits, predictable randomness, and scaling—shape the machinery of life on scales ranging from microscopic molecules to gigantic elephants. He describes how biophysics is helping to unlock the secrets of a host of natural phenomena, such as how your limbs know to form at the proper places, and why humans need lungs but ants do not. Parthasarathy explores how the cutting-edge biotechnologies of tomorrow could enable us to alter living things in ways both subtle and profound.

Featuring original artwork by the author, this sweeping tour of biophysics offers astonishing new perspectives on how the wonders of life can arise from so simple a beginning.

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About the Author

Raghuveer Parthasarathy is an Alec and Kay Keith Professor of Physics at the University of Oregon, where he is a member of the Institute of Molecular Biology and the Materials Science Institute. He lives in Eugene, Oregon. Website eighteenthelephant.com Twitter @RParthasarathy7

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Publisher
Princeton University Press
Publication date
2024
Language
English
ISBN 10 
0691258678
ISBN 13 
9780691258676
Binding
Paperback
Number of pages
336
Rating
  • 4.32 out of 5 stars
    143 ratings by Goodreads

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780691200408: So Simple a Beginning: How Four Physical Principles Shape Our Living World

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  0691200408 ISBN 13:  9780691200408
Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2022
Hardcover