Kinetic Theory of Living Pattern (Developmental and Cell Biology Series)

This book contains both an extensive philosophical commentary on this dichotomy in views and an exposition of the type of theory most favored by physical scientists. In this theory, living form is a manifestation of the dynamics of chemical change and physical transport or other physics of spatial communication. The Reaction-diffusion theory as initiated by Turing in 1952 and elaborated by Prigogine, Gierer, Meinhardt, and others is discussed in detail. In some respects the book takes up the theme that "the things we see in the cell are less important than the actions we recognize in the cell", which was a major theme of D'Arcy W. Thompson's classic 1917 work On Growth and Form.