Signs of Life: How Complexity Pervades Biology

Signs of Life applies complexity to the whole of biology-from molecules to Gaia-and sets a revolutionary new agenda for complexity theory, evolution, and development. Signs of Life is an entirely new approach to the problems of understanding living systems. It applies the mathematics of order and disorder, of entropy, chance, and randomness, of chaos and nonlinear dynamics to the various mysteries of the living world at all levels. Less a set of answers than a guide to thinking about living systems, this book will help set the agenda for biology in the coming century.