Evolution, the Logic of Biology (eBook)

John S. Torday, PhD, is Professor of Pediatrics and Ob/Gyn, Director of The Henry L. Guenther Laboratory for Cell/Molecular Research, Director of Laboratory for Evolutionary Preventive Medicine at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, CA, USA and a member of the Faculty in the Evolutionary Medicine Program at the University of California, Los Angeles in Los Angeles, CA, USA. Virender K. Rehan, MD, is Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center Torrance, CA, USA.

Preface ix

1 Introduction 1

2 On the Fractal Nature of Evolution 13

3 The Historic Perspective on Paracrinology and Evolution as Lead-ins to a Systems Biology Approach 23

4 Evolution of Adipocyte Differentiation Related Protein, or "Oh, the Places You'll Go" - Theodore Geissel, Aka Dr Seuss 37

5 Evolutionary Ontology and Epistemology 49

6 Calcium-Lipid Epistasis: Like Ouroboros, the Snake, Catching its Tail! 65

7 The Lung Alveolar Lipofibroblast: An Evolutionary Strategy Against Neonatal Hyperoxic Lung Injury 77

8 Bio-Logic 85

9 Cell Signaling as the Basis for all of Biology 107

10 Information + Negentropy + Homeostasis = Evolution 119

11 Vertical Integration of Cytoskeletal Function from Yeast to Human 125

12 Yet Another Bite of the "Evolutionary" Apple 135

13 On Eliminating the Subjectivity from Biology: Predictions 165

14 The Predictive Value of the Cellular Approach to Evolution 173

15 Homeostasis as the Mechanism of Evolution 189

16 On the Evolution of Development 201

17 A Central Theory of Biology 219

18 Implications of Evolutionary Physiology for Astrobiology 231

19 Pleiotropy Reveals the Mechanism of Evolutionary Novelty 257

20 Meta-Darwinism 267

Index 279