Analytical physiology of cells and developing organisms

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ANALYTICAL

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PHYSIOLOGY

Vol. 7, No. 5, 7977

OF CELLS AND

DEVELOPING

481

ORGANISMS

B.C. Goodwin Academic Press Inc. , London, New York, San Francisco ISBN 0 12 289360 - 1976 - E8.50/$18.50 The aim of the author is to construct a picture of the physiological behaviour of cells and developing organisms based upon the insights of molecular biolog) The first on the one hand and mathematical model-building on the other. three chapters deal withmetabolic regulation, epigenetic control circuits, and homeostasis prokaryotic andeukaryotic cell cycles - in terms of control wherein and adaptations are regarded primarily as manifestations of positive and negative feedback, and the stability of the living system is interpreted in informational rather than energetic terms. As the book proceeds, spatiotemporal relationships become progressively predominant, and diffusion and wave propagation emerge as important space-ordering processes. In considering morphogenesis, the author predicts that there wil I be a dramatic transformation from the concept of static diffusion gradients ordering spatial domains, which has served embryoIogisk well for many years, to concepts involving dynamic and flexibIe space-time processes - where order arises from wave propagation from defined organizing centres together with local or global clocks which generate spatial and temporal periodicity . In the final chapters, the author explores the postulate that organisms are essentially cognitive and cooperative systems - cognitive in the sense that they function and evolve on the basis of knowledge of themselves and their environment, cooperative in so far as the dynamical modes of operation of biological systems (growth, differentiation, rhythmic activity, etc,)are to be understood in terms of the cooperative (correlated) behaviour of particular Finally, evolution emerges as a cognitive process which manifests processes. intelligence and which is related to organismic processes in ways which require further study and the development of a rigorous model to demonstrate their plausibility. This book is both challenging and stimulating, but it will not be lightreading for the average cell or developmental biologist - though feelings of intellectual inferiority will be mollified by the occasions where the author’s emphasis, conclusions or choice of examples could be challenged. For instance, is it true that Vonderhaarand Topper’s work on hormonal induction of mammary gland cells in virgin mice necessarily requires the abandonment or drastic alteration of Holtzer’s quanta1 mitosis hypothesis? And why did he choose to discuss the chaione hypothesis at such length, whilst :gnoring much excellent work on the,control of cell proliferation and tissue homeostasis? Was this an

482 aberration in the author’s or a deliberate “flirtation

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“search for a balance with the heretical”?

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between

Vol. 1, No. 5, I9 7 7

knowledge

Michael Balls Department of Human Morphology University of Nottingham Medical

and vision”

School