Disordered Systems and Biological Organization: Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Disordered Systems and Biological Orga

et al et E. Bienenstock

ISBN 10: 3540160949 / ISBN 13: 9783540160946

Published by Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. K, 1986

About this Item

Ancien livre de bibliothèque. Salissures sur la tranche. Edition 1986. Ammareal reverse jusqu'à 15% du prix net de cet article à des organisations caritatives. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION Book Condition: Used, Good. Former library book. Stains on the edge. Edition 1986. Ammareal gives back up to 15% of this item's net price to charity organizations.

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Disordered Systems and Biological Organization: Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop on Disordered Systems and Biological Orga
• Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin and Heidelberg GmbH & Co. K
• Publication Date: 1986
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3540160949
• ISBN 13: 9783540160946
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Bon

About this title

Synopsis

The NATO workshop on Disordered Systems and Biological Organization was attended, in march 1985, by 65 scientists representing a large variety of fields: Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics and Biology. It was the purpose of this interdisciplinary workshop to shed light on the conceptual connections existing between fields of research apparently as different as: automata theory, combinatorial optimization, spin glasses and modeling of biological systems, all of them concerned with the global organization of complex systems, locally interconnected. Common to many contributions to this volume is the underlying analogy between biological systems and spin glasses: they share the same properties of stability and diversity. This is the case for instance of primary sequences of biopo Iymers I ike proteins and nucleic acids considered as the result of mutation-selection processes [P. W. Anderson, 1983] or of evolving biological species [G. Weisbuch, 1984]. Some of the most striking aspects of our cognitive apparatus, involved In learning and recognttlon [J. Hopfield, 19821, can also be described in terms of stability and diversity in a suitable configuration space. These interpretations and preoccupations merge with those of theoretical biologists like S. Kauffman [1969] (genetic networks) and of mathematicians of automata theory: the dynamics of networks of automata can be interpreted in terms of organization of a system in multiple possible attractors. The present introduction outlInes the relationships between the contributions presented at the workshop and brIefly discusses each paper in its particular scientific context.