Molecular And Biological Physics Of Living Systems

Booknews

That inert matter in suitable circumstances can (even "likes") to organize itself into the baffling complexities characteristic of the Living State is biologically obvious, yet a long-standing source of embarrassment to physicists. As is the tendency of matter so organized to act in sometimes seeming violation of some of the established principles of physics. Familiarity with new tools (catastrophe theory, fractal analysis, sharpened theories of non-linear systems) serves only to deepen the mystery, to make ever more tantalizing the prospect of a physical theory which would expose Life, in its infinite variety, to be "inevitable". The seventeen essays collected here summarize recent efforts to construct the outlines of such a theory. Almost all are speculative, some highly (!) speculative...have the substance of analogies/metaphors stretched to the snapping point. (NW) Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)