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The Touchstone of Life: Molecular Information, Cell Communication, and the Foundations of Life, by Werner R. Loewenstein
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No one can escape a sense of wonder when looking at an organism from within. From the humblest amoeba to man, from the smallest cell organelle to the amazing human brain, life presents us with example after example of highly ordered cellular matter, precisely organized and shaped to perform coordinated functions. But where does this order spring from? How does a living organism manage to do what nonliving things cannot do--bring forth and maintain all that order against the unrelenting, disordering pressures of the universe?
In The Touchstone of Life, world-renowned biophysicist Werner Loewenstein seeks answers to these ancient riddles by applying information theory to recent discoveries in molecular biology. Taking us into a fascinating microscopic world, he lays bare an all-pervading communication network inside and between our cells--a web of extraordinary beauty, where molecular information flows in gracefully interlaced circles. Loewenstein then takes us on an exhilarating journey along that web and we meet its leading actors, the macromolecules, and see how they extract order out of the erratic quantum world; and through the powerful lens of information theory, we are let in on their trick, the most dazzling of magician's acts, whereby they steal form out of formlessness.
The Touchstone of Life flashes with fresh insights into the mystery of life. Boldly straddling the line between biology and physics, the book offers a breathtaking view of that hidden world where molecular information turns the wheels of life. Loewenstein makes these complex scientific subjects lucid and fascinating, as he sheds light on the most fundamental aspects of our existence.
- Sales Rank: #1100542 in Books
- Published on: 1999-01-07
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.30" h x 1.70" w x 6.30" l, 1.56 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 384 pages
Amazon.com Review
"If there were something like a guidebook for living creatures, I think the first line would read like a biblical commandment: Make thy information larger. And next would come the guidelines for colonizing, in good imperialist fashion, the biggest chunk of negative entropy around."
Werner Loewenstein, a cell biologist at Woods Hole Biological Laboratories, has written a remarkably engaging book tying together information theory, thermodynamics, molecular biology, and the structure of cells. The subject is not one to which the human brain is well suited, but with Loewenstein's guidance you may get a better grasp on concepts like entropy than you've ever had before.
Loewenstein describes life as a circus: "Flowing in from the cosmos, information loops back onto itself to produce the circular information complex we call Life.... To those who are inside the Circus, it will always seem the greatest show on Earth, though I can't speak for the One who is outside it."
The Touchstone of Life covers some of the ground surveyed in Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach and Kauffman's At Home in the Universe, but with an even stronger sense of the physical realities constraining the "Circus." It should prove fascinating for anyone interested in biology, consciousness, physics, or the future of computing. --Mary Ellen Curtin
From Library Journal
The biophysicist from Woods Hole Institute explains cellular communication and the role of information theory in molecular biology, tying together the most recent discoveries in an interesting and well-written account. Nothing less than the organization and circuitry of life is tackled here, and it is done successfully. (LJ 1/99)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
"Among the tens of thousands of articles that I have read during my career as a research scientist, the one that most astonished me was published over 30 years ago by Werner Loewenstein and his colleagues. They showed that biological structures called cell junctions, which I and many other scientists had believed to act as barriers blocking movements of molecules passing the outside of cells, also functioned in perpendicular direction as highways permitting the flow of molecules between the insides of cells. In this new book, Loewenstein, the man who thereby opened the field of cell-to-cell communication, now summarizes the whole field and its implications for cancer, thought, and much else."--Jared M. Diamond, University of California, Los Angeles
"The Touchstone of Life may be the most fascinating book I have read.... The language throughout the book is complex like a Tennessee Williams classic yet fast-paced like a Michael Crichton thriller."--Mark D. Drapeau, American Scientist
"Dr. Werner Loewenstein is one of the great pioneers in the field of cell communication. He has now produced an extensive and scholarly review linking the wider aspects of information exchange in the biological world. The Touchstone of Life is a book of very general interest." --Sir Michael Stoker, CBE FRS
"Poetic and encyclopedic.... In a tour de force, he traces the origin of information, the orderly arrangement of matter and energy, to the first instants after the Big Bang.... Lowenstein writes engagingly, and he provides the background material a nonspecialist needs to follow the intricate story."--George Johnson, The New York Times Book Review
"Over 30 years ago, the research of Werner Loewenstein and his colleagues on cell junctions opened the field of intercellular communication. Since then, Loewenstein has contributed much to our understanding of biological information transfer. His new book, The Touchstone of Life, is in many ways highly original...[it] contains myriad facts, unexpected relations, and remarkable insights."--Louis DeFelice, Science
"The author has revealed many of the principles of intercellular communication in his own research. In this book he addresses broader aspects of communication...The scope of the book is extraordinary: information exchange from the big bang to yesterday."--Jon C. Clardy, Chemical and Engineering News
"A biophysicist renown for his work in cell communication applies information theory to recent discoveries in molecular biology in order to relay how order and function arise from cellular processes. Loewenstein argues that it is this information flow and not energy per se that is the prime mover of life. These processes move in circles and become units of life...and by tracing the cosmic origins of information over 15 billion years, he assesses how these circles came to be, what happens when they are altered, and what makes them unique."--Science News
"Biophysicist Loewenstein argues forcefully that information works in tandem with energy to provide structure to the physical world. Starting back at the Big Bang, Loewenstein discusses the origin of information and explains how it pulls a molecular organization out of the erratic quantum world and engenders the primal organizations of matter in the universe. The bulk of his book then focuses on the role information transfer has played in the evolution of life over the past four billion years. By merging principles of biology and physics, Loewenstein explains the workings of cell biology and biochemistry. Information exchange is shown to be responsible for processes as diverse as cellular reproduction, hormonal action, forms of cancerous growth and...human consciousness."--Publishers Weekly
"How has life as we know it come to be? The answer, Loewenstein tells us, lies in information: information flow, not energy per se, is the prime mover of life...molecular information flowing in circles brings forth the organization we call 'organism' and maintains it against the ever-present disorganizing pressures in the physics universe. So viewed, the information circle becomes the unit of life. Loewenstein, world-renowned for his discoveries in cell communication and biological information transfer, pursues his argument by applying what he calls the "strong loupe of information theory" to molecular biology. With this method he reveals the beauties and intricacies of the myriad webs of communication that bring form from formlessness."--Reading Room
"Among the tens of thousands of articles that I've read during my career as a research scientist, the one that most astonished me was published over 30 years ago by Werner Loewenstein and his colleagues. They showed that biological structures called cell junctions, which I and many other scientists had believed to act as barriers blocking movement of molecules passing the outsides of cells, also functioned in the perpendicular direction as highways permitting the flow of molecules between the insides of cells. In this new book, Loewenstein, the man, who thereby opened the field of cell-to-cell communication, now summarized the whole field a dn its implications for cancer...and much else."--Jared M. Diamond, Pulitzer Prize Winner 1998, Author of The Third Chimpanzee and Guns, Germs, and Steel
Most helpful customer reviews
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
we follow the author in his travel across the history of Universe until the actual miracle provided by the ultra fine tuned mole
By Amazon Customer
Deep thinking about critical questions which pervade Scientific knowledge.
Starting from the starting so-called Big Bang theory, we follow the author in his travel across the history of Universe until the actual miracle provided by the ultra fine tuned molecular systems allowing the survival of living species. The temptation is great, after this reading, to ask the question "how such highly molecular systems encountered in our living environment can be the result of "only" brownian motion and blind collisions of small molecules like hydrogen, methane and so on"?…. But there we leave the field of Science to enter the clouds of Metaphysics...
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
Flawed but interesting
By Bernard Finucane
I personally found this book very interesting because it was the first time I had seen the idea of information in biological systems discussed in a popular science book.
Usually when laymen think of information in biological systems, they are thinking of the way the brain processes information or the the way DNA stores it. But that is a different topic.
This book is about the rest of the information in any organism, which is stored in the arrangement of the complex molecules in the body which allows the organism to function. At some level, the body must "know" where all this stuff should be, and whether it is where it should be. Otherwise it couldn't repair itself or grow.
The amount of information involved is huge. This book is about where the information comes from and how it is collected. The information is gathered in tiny parcels in a massively parallel process consisting of chemical reactions.
One of the most interesting points of the book is that life is more interested in conserving information than anything else, including energy.
It's all very interesting, so why not five stars? Well, I am afraid the editors of this book really fell down on the job.
First, Loewenstein is a German, and it really shows. I am fluent in German, and I really wonder how people who aren't can even figure out what he is trying to say. A lot of the book reads like an amatuerish translation of German - which in fact it probably is.
Second, Loewenstein often loses track of the point he is trying to make, so that a sentence with an parenthetical remark is converted into a whole paragraph about something unimportant, with the original remark buried somewhere in it. What makes this worse is the fact that Loewenstein is often preoccupied with things that Germans talk about, but that English speakers need some backgraound information on to make sense of.
I sort of feel sorry for the author. With the right editor this could have been a pop sci blockbuster.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful.
"Lady evolution" at her best
By Raymond F. Hendrix
The book is really a must read for anyone interested in the subject of biological information and cell communication. Dr Loewenstein treats the subject from an evolutionary perspective and so I think a good book to read in conjunction with this one is "In The Beginning Was Information" by Werner Gitt.
Loewenstein takes us from a simple problem that was not answered until the concept of information was discovered by science. This field of information will no doubt be the proof that either spoils or makes the pudding in the evolution vs. creation debate. The communication within a living organism and the information exchange mechanism is quite fascinating as Loewenstein points out quite thoroughly by the use of analogy. The book is difficult to read in places and he gets quite technical so the reader should not expect to sail through it but it is definitely worth the effort.
After reading Gitt's book I was left with the impression that Loewenstein did not understand the full nature of meaningful information. Claude Shannon deals with information from a mostly statistical and mechanical perspective and Loewenstein does not go beyond that level in the book. The mechanics are fascinating but I am afraid that Dr Loewenstein has failed to explain where the `foundations of life' comes from. His constant answer when he reaches a gap in knowledge is to say that `Lady evolution' did it. Werner Gitt on the other hand goes way beyond the statistical level and shows the true nature of the coded information contained in DNA.
Loewenstein's book however is invaluable especially as it explores cell communication. I am quite happy that I purchased the book and I will probably use it as a reference tool for years to come. I only rated it with four stars because I think he over did it a little in his constant references to `Lady evolution' and what `she' supposedly did. This is a rather typical `evolution in the gaps' argument and it is to be expected now days but I had to chuckle a few times when he inserted `her' into the discussion as if we all know that `she' can do just about anything if she is given enough time and if the reader has enough faith. Read Gitt's book and his and decide for yourself who or what is the foundation of life. I am the author of "The Blind Atheist".
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