The use of information theory in biology: a historical perspective.

Abstract

Whether we consider the question raised by Giovanni Boniolo regarding a possible 'biology without information' or the 'the definitions of information and meaning' proposed by Marcello Barbieri, we are faced respectively with a philosopher and a specialist of theoretical biology who speculate on the different possible uses of information theory in biology What can be the place of historians in such a contemporary scientific discussion? The lack of hindsight. makes it, from the beginning, a very difficult task to undertake. Most of those who recognize themselves as historians will officially consider that assessing the value of current scientific research definitively does not belong to their goals. Marc Bloch, the father of the famous Annales school, criticized sixty years ago the tendency to judge in his Apologie pour l'histoire ou Metier d'historien (The Historian's Craft): 'Unfortunately, by judging one finishes almost fatally by losing even the liking to explain' (Bloch 1949, 70). If the understanding matters more than the judging, Marc Bloch nevertheless accepted the idea of defining history as a science concerned with truth: 'History might be proud to have (...) by a precise elaboration of its technique, opened for the mankind a new way towards the truth, and consequendy the right.' (67) The purpose of the following pages is thus to comment on the early uses of information theory in biology in order to present more recent scientific work in an historical perspective. A few considerations on the history of the use of this theory in physics might also give hints in this direction.