The idea of self-organisation in biology and its critics

Abstract

The idea of self-organisation in biology and its critics Using the example of Alan Turing's paper on morphogenesis, Ute Deichmann at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev explores self-organisation in biology. The availability of large amounts of genomic and other data and the complexity of biological systems have led to increasing collaboration of biologists with mathematicians and computer scientists. However, the use of mathematics in biology differs from that in physics, and problems arise when basic biological principles, such as the genomic control of basic life processes or the specificity of organisms and their biochemistry, are disregarded. I exemplify the importance of mathematics in biology and the problems this can entail, using the example of mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing's work on morphogenesis, that is, the generation of form in development.