Abstract
The gene's eye view of life, proposed in Richard Dawkins acclaimed bestseller
The Selfish Gene, sees living bodies as mere vehicles for the replication of
genetic codes. But in The Music of Life, world renowned physiologist Denis
Noble argues that, to truly understand life, we must look beyond the "selfish
gene" to consider life on a much wider variety of levels.
Life, Noble asserts, is a kind of music, a symphonic interplay between genes,
cells, organs, body, and environment. He weaves this musical metaphor
throughout this personal and deeply lyrical work, illuminating ideas that
might otherwise be daunting to non-scientists. In elegant prose, Noble sets
out a cutting-edge alternative to the gene's eye view, offering a radical
switch of perception in which genes are seen as prisoners and the organism
itself is a complex system of many interacting levels. In his more expansive
view, life emerges as a process, the ebb and flow of activity in an intricate
web of connections. He introduces readers to the realm of systems biology, a
field that has been growing in strength in the past decade. Noble, himself one
of the founders of this field, argues modern systems biology may be the view
we need to adopt to gain a deeper understanding of the nature of life.
Drawing on his experiences in his research on the heartbeat, and on
evolutionary biology, development, medicine, philosophy, linguistics, and
Chinese culture, Noble presents us with a profound and very modern reflection
on the nature of life.
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