LEADER 04002nam 2200625Ia 450 001 9910814417803321 005 20200520144314.0 010 $a0-674-03944-0 024 7 $a10.4159/9780674039445 035 $a(CKB)1000000000786785 035 $a(StDuBDS)AH23050762 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000196093 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11180773 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000196093 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10142252 035 $a(PQKB)10666673 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL3300405 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10318397 035 $a(OCoLC)923111144 035 $a(DE-B1597)588899 035 $a(DE-B1597)9780674039445 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC3300405 035 $a(OCoLC)1322124368 035 $a(EXLCZ)991000000000786785 100 $a20011002d2002 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aur||||||||||| 181 $ctxt 182 $cc 183 $acr 200 10$aMaking sense of life $eexplaining biological development with models, metaphors, and machines /$fEvelyn Fox Keller 205 $a1st ed. 210 $aCambridge, MA $cHarvard University Press$d2002 215 $a1 online resource (xii, 388 p. )$cill 300 $aOriginally published: 2002. 311 $a0-674-00746-8 311 $a0-674-01250-X 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [351]-381) and index. 327 $aPreface 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 Index 330 $aWhat 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. 330 $bWhat 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. 606 $aDevelopmental biology 606 $aBiology 615 0$aDevelopmental biology. 615 0$aBiology. 676 $a570.1 686 $aWB 4000$2rvk 700 $aKeller$b Evelyn Fox$f1936-$051484 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910814417803321 996 $aMaking sense of life$94200336 997 $aUNINA