Accessible updates on the technical literature; commentaries on that literature; and introductions (with links) to new articles associated with the “Biology Worthy of Life” project. The content in general relates to the dramatic discoveries re-shaping our understanding of organisms. The current focus is on gene regulation, evolution, and the meaning of organic wholeness — all of which can make for some occasionally wide-ranging excursions. Notes, commentaries, and articles are by Stephen L. Talbott of The Nature Institute.
RSS FeedScenes of Life 29 November 2018
We in the twenty-first century have inherited a rich and extensive library of descriptive literature about living things, their habitats, and their mutual relations, bequeathed to us over the centuries by dedicated naturalists. Unfortunately, in this age of molecular biol ...Whole Organisms and Their Evolutionary Intentions: An Overview 12 July 2018
As soon as we are willing to acknowledge the organism as a purposive agent, everything in our evolutionary theory needs to be thought differently. Among other consequences, we discover evolution to be a purposive and directional process in much the same sense as ontogeny (in ...A Physicist, a Philologist, and the Meaning of Life 15 May 2018
We have all heard about the insignificance of human existence in a cosmos that is indifferent, if not alien, to us. But history and language suggest that the cosmos has a different story to tell. ...Why Can’t Biologists Quit Believing in Intelligent Design? 14 December 2017
Few biologists are reticent about their conviction that organisms are machine-like and have been “tinkered” with throughout evolutionary history by a designer capable of producing intelligent results — all without any intelligent aid from organisms themselves. The desig ...Evolution and the Purposes of Life 31 March 2017
Does evolutionary theory explain the origin and reality of purposiveness in the life of organisms? Or does the reality of purposiveness point us toward severe and disabling inadequacies in the reigning versions of the theory? This is a large and ambitious article — the fi ...Genes and Organisms: Improvising the Dance of Life 10 November 2015
Molecular biologists have spent several decades trying to identify how “one thing causing another” explains the organism. It is a simplistic and decontextualized way of looking that ends up in radical falsehood. The study of genes and their expression shows us that the org ...Where Do Intelligence and Wisdom Reside? (From Bodily Wisdom to the Knowing Self, Part 3) 29 April 2015
It makes little sense to try to explain how intelligence arises in organisms, given that we see nothing but intelligence there — for example, in the processes producing the brain. The really interesting challenge is to distinguish the intelligence at work in our bodies fro ...How to Unthink Epigenetics 26 March 2015
Confusion over the meaning of “epigenetics” reflects fundamental confusion about the nature of organisms and biological causation. Epigenetics really points us to the intentional activity of the whole organism — an activity in which DNA is caught up. The organism is ma ...Symptoms: Notes from the Biological Literature (3) 8 January 2015
Both the history of research on induced pluripotency and the current discoveries regarding the microbiome testify to the decisive importance of context, relationship, and interaction in the life of the organism. ...Of Humans and Our Microbial Guests: A Dynamic and Living Balance 9 December 2014
You’ll have a hard time believing how the invisible microbes within us function as part of our own life. And perhaps not so hard a time believing how biologists are tempted immediately to regard particular microorganisms as opportunities for exerting neat control over every ...How Does an Organism Get Its Shape? The Causal Role of Biological Form 11 November 2014
A study of plant form reveals that organic form is a causal principle; in a very real sense, it is form that brings about its own physical embodiment, not physical interactions that bring about form. A realization of this truth would radically transform biological thinkin ...Let’s Loosen Up Biological Thinking! 9 September 2014
Excerpt: “How many molecular biologists today would feel such freedom — the kind of freedom Richard Conn Henry knew within the physics community? I mean, for example, the freedom to wonder aloud whether intention and agency, so difficult to banish from biological descrip ...
