How does complexity of development, structure, and function of organisms emerge from the relative simplicity of biochemistry and genetics? In Theoretical Biology, Brian Goodwin and Peter Saunders bring together a distinguished group of contributors to provide a broad-based yet coherent inquiry into biological processes. In the spirit of C. H. Waddington's Towards a Theoretical Biology, the authors seek to establish the generative principles that apply throughout the field of biology to give a unifying logical structure to diverse empirical phenomena. Major topics include self-organization in complex systems; order and adaptability in genetic networks; development and evolution; and the relevance of physics and mathematics to biology.
"Sparkling, exciting, and novel... These various attempts to answer the difficult questions of the origin, control, and evolution of biological complexity involve imaginative borrowings from one discipline to another, attempts to push the limits of nonlinear mathematics to the utmost, and a kind of courageous open-mindedness." -- BioScience
"This is an important book and should provide abundant material for student seminars in biology." -- Biologist.