The Architecture of Biological Complexity - Sydney Brenner
Δημοσιεύτηκε στις 24 Ιαν 2013
Speaker : Sydney Brenner
Venue : J.N. Tata Auditorium, IISc, Bangalore
Date and Time : 18 Oct 12, 18:00
In
his paper "On Computable Numbers" Turing proposed a way of performing
mechanical procedures on binary inputs to test whether mathematical
functions could be computed from a set of simple rules. The Turing
machine, as it came to be called, worked on a tape which it could move
in both directions and on which it could write and erase binary symbols.
He proved that there was a Universal Turing Machine, which, given a
description of any Turing machine could then carry out the particular
computation of that machine. Modern computers and their stored
programmes implement Universal Machines. von Neumann, following Turing,
began to think about how machines could build other machines. He
discovered that he could define a Universal Construction Machine, which
given the description of any Constructor, could construct it. This led
him to define the logical structure of a self-reproducing machine.
Remarkably, an implementation did not have to be invented, but exists in
all biological systems. It requires a description of itself to build a
copy of itself, but must copy the instructions and insert this copy into
the new machine to complete the task. Thus Schrodinger was wrong when
he wrote that the chromosome contained both the plan for the organism
and the means to execute it; while they only contain a description of
the means of execution.
This notion of computation is, in my
opinion, the only valid approach to biological complexity and is opposed
to many of the ideas underlying what has come to be called systems
biology, which is very fashionable today. It will be shown that systems
biology attempts to solve inverse problems - that is, obtain models of
biological systems from observations of their behaviour - whereas, what I
call computational biology, continues in the classical mode of
discovering the machinery of the system and computing behaviour, solving
a forward problem.
Venue : J.N. Tata Auditorium, IISc, Bangalore
Date and Time : 18 Oct 12, 18:00
In
his paper "On Computable Numbers" Turing proposed a way of performing
mechanical procedures on binary inputs to test whether mathematical
functions could be computed from a set of simple rules. The Turing
machine, as it came to be called, worked on a tape which it could move
in both directions and on which it could write and erase binary symbols.
He proved that there was a Universal Turing Machine, which, given a
description of any Turing machine could then carry out the particular
computation of that machine. Modern computers and their stored
programmes implement Universal Machines. von Neumann, following Turing,
began to think about how machines could build other machines. He
discovered that he could define a Universal Construction Machine, which
given the description of any Constructor, could construct it. This led
him to define the logical structure of a self-reproducing machine.
Remarkably, an implementation did not have to be invented, but exists in
all biological systems. It requires a description of itself to build a
copy of itself, but must copy the instructions and insert this copy into
the new machine to complete the task. Thus Schrodinger was wrong when
he wrote that the chromosome contained both the plan for the organism
and the means to execute it; while they only contain a description of
the means of execution.
This notion of computation is, in my
opinion, the only valid approach to biological complexity and is opposed
to many of the ideas underlying what has come to be called systems
biology, which is very fashionable today. It will be shown that systems
biology attempts to solve inverse problems - that is, obtain models of
biological systems from observations of their behaviour - whereas, what I
call computational biology, continues in the classical mode of
discovering the machinery of the system and computing behaviour, solving
a forward problem.
Κατηγορία
Άδεια
- Τυπική άδεια YouTube
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου