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Developmental system: at the crossroads of system theory, computer science, and genetic engineering

Many facts were at the origin of the present monograph. The ftrst is the beauty of maple leaves in Quebec forests in Fall. It raised the question: how does nature create and reproduce such beautiful patterns? The second was the reading of A. Lindenmayer's works on L systems. Finally came the di...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Węgrzyn, Stefan, Gille, Jean-Charles, Vidal, Pierre
Lenguaje:eng
Publicado: Springer 1990
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3438-8
http://cds.cern.ch/record/2006135
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author Węgrzyn, Stefan
Gille, Jean-Charles
Vidal, Pierre
author_facet Węgrzyn, Stefan
Gille, Jean-Charles
Vidal, Pierre
author_sort Węgrzyn, Stefan
collection CERN
description Many facts were at the origin of the present monograph. The ftrst is the beauty of maple leaves in Quebec forests in Fall. It raised the question: how does nature create and reproduce such beautiful patterns? The second was the reading of A. Lindenmayer's works on L systems. Finally came the discovery of "the secrets of DNA" together with many stimulating ex­ changes with biologists. Looking at such facts from the viewpoint of recursive numerical systems led to devise a simple model based on six elementary operations organized in a generating word, the analog of the program of a computer and of the genetic code of DNA in the cells of a living organism. It turned out that such a model, despite its simplicity, can account for a great number of properties of living organisms, e.g. their hierarchical structure, their ability to regenerate after a trauma, the possibility of cloning, their sensitivity to mutation, their growth, decay and reproduction. The model lends itself to analysis: the knowledge of the generating word makes it possible to predict the structure of the successive developmental stages of the system; and to synthesis: a speciftc type of structure can be obtained by systematically constructing a generating word that produces it. In fact the model here proposed is coherent with the fundamental assumptions of cellular biology and in particular with recent discoveries concerning DNA, which in the light of our model behaves like a very elaborate generating word.
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spelling cern-20061352021-04-21T20:23:56Zdoi:10.1007/978-1-4612-3438-8http://cds.cern.ch/record/2006135engWęgrzyn, StefanGille, Jean-CharlesVidal, PierreDevelopmental system: at the crossroads of system theory, computer science, and genetic engineeringMathematical Physics and MathematicsMany facts were at the origin of the present monograph. The ftrst is the beauty of maple leaves in Quebec forests in Fall. It raised the question: how does nature create and reproduce such beautiful patterns? The second was the reading of A. Lindenmayer's works on L systems. Finally came the discovery of "the secrets of DNA" together with many stimulating ex­ changes with biologists. Looking at such facts from the viewpoint of recursive numerical systems led to devise a simple model based on six elementary operations organized in a generating word, the analog of the program of a computer and of the genetic code of DNA in the cells of a living organism. It turned out that such a model, despite its simplicity, can account for a great number of properties of living organisms, e.g. their hierarchical structure, their ability to regenerate after a trauma, the possibility of cloning, their sensitivity to mutation, their growth, decay and reproduction. The model lends itself to analysis: the knowledge of the generating word makes it possible to predict the structure of the successive developmental stages of the system; and to synthesis: a speciftc type of structure can be obtained by systematically constructing a generating word that produces it. In fact the model here proposed is coherent with the fundamental assumptions of cellular biology and in particular with recent discoveries concerning DNA, which in the light of our model behaves like a very elaborate generating word.Springeroai:cds.cern.ch:20061351990
spellingShingle Mathematical Physics and Mathematics
Węgrzyn, Stefan
Gille, Jean-Charles
Vidal, Pierre
Developmental system: at the crossroads of system theory, computer science, and genetic engineering
title Developmental system: at the crossroads of system theory, computer science, and genetic engineering
title_full Developmental system: at the crossroads of system theory, computer science, and genetic engineering
title_fullStr Developmental system: at the crossroads of system theory, computer science, and genetic engineering
title_full_unstemmed Developmental system: at the crossroads of system theory, computer science, and genetic engineering
title_short Developmental system: at the crossroads of system theory, computer science, and genetic engineering
title_sort developmental system: at the crossroads of system theory, computer science, and genetic engineering
topic Mathematical Physics and Mathematics
url https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3438-8
http://cds.cern.ch/record/2006135
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AT gillejeancharles developmentalsystematthecrossroadsofsystemtheorycomputerscienceandgeneticengineering
AT vidalpierre developmentalsystematthecrossroadsofsystemtheorycomputerscienceandgeneticengineering