04012nam 2200613Ia 450 991077818190332120231011233935.00-674-03944-010.4159/9780674039445(CKB)1000000000786785(StDuBDS)AH23050762(SSID)ssj0000196093(PQKBManifestationID)11180773(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000196093(PQKBWorkID)10142252(PQKB)10666673(Au-PeEL)EBL3300405(CaPaEBR)ebr10318397(OCoLC)923111144(DE-B1597)588899(DE-B1597)9780674039445(MiAaPQ)EBC3300405(OCoLC)1322124368(EXLCZ)99100000000078678520011002d2002 uy 0engur|||||||||||txtccrMaking sense of life[electronic resource] explaining biological development with models, metaphors, and machines /Evelyn Fox KellerCambridge, MA Harvard University Press20021 online resource (xii, 388 p. )illOriginally published: 2002.0-674-00746-8 0-674-01250-X Includes bibliographical references (p. [351]-381) and index.Preface Introduction PART ONE Models: Explaining Development without the Help of Genes 1. Synthetic Biology and the Origin of Living Form 2. Morphology as a Science of Mechanical Forces 3. Untimely Births of a Mathematical Biology PART TWO Metaphors: Genes and Developmental Narratives 4. Genes, Gene Action, and Genetic Programs 5. Taming the Cybernetic Metaphor 6. Positioning Positional Information PART THREE Machines: Understanding Development with Computers, Recombinant DNA, and Molecular Imaging 7. The Visual Culture of Molecular Embryology 8. New Roles for Mathematical and Computational Modeling 9. Synthetic Biology Redux-Computer Simulation and Artificial Life Conclusion: Understanding Development Notes References IndexWhat do biologists want? How will we know when we have 'made sense' of life? Explanations in the biological sciences are provisional and partial, judged by criteria as heterogenous as their subject matter. This text accounts for this diversity.What do biologists want? If, unlike their counterparts in physics, biologists are generally wary of a grand, overarching theory, at what kinds of explanation do biologists aim? How will we know when we have "made sense" of life? Such questions, Evelyn Fox Keller suggests, offer no simple answers. Explanations in the biological sciences are typically provisional and partial, judged by criteria as heterogeneous as their subject matter. It is Keller's aim in this bold and challenging book to account for this epistemological diversity--particularly in the discipline of developmental biology. In particular, Keller asks, what counts as an "explanation" of biological development in individual organisms? Her inquiry ranges from physical and mathematical models to more familiar explanatory metaphors to the dramatic contributions of recent technological developments, especially in imaging, recombinant DNA, and computer modeling and simulations. A history of the diverse and changing nature of biological explanation in a particularly charged field, Making Sense of Life draws our attention to the temporal, disciplinary, and cultural components of what biologists mean, and what they understand, when they propose to explain life.Developmental biologyBiologyDevelopmental biology.Biology.570.1WB 4000rvkKeller Evelyn Fox1936-2023.1462633MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910778181903321Making sense of life3671678UNINA