Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Chemistry Versus Information

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Code Biology

  • 1312 Accesses

Abstract

From time immemorial it has been taken for granted that life is fundamentally different from matter, but in the last few centuries this belief has been seriously challenged by the view that ‘life is chemistry’. The idea that life evolved naturally on the primitive Earth suggests that the first cells came into being from previous chemical systems by spontaneous chemical reactions, and this is equivalent to saying that there is no fundamental divide between life and matter.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Barbieri M (2003) The organic codes: an introduction to semantic biology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Barbieri M (2004) The definitions of information and meaning: two possible boundaries between physics and biology. Riv Biol Biol Forum 97:91–110

    Google Scholar 

  • Barbieri M (2006a) Life and semiosis: the real nature of information and meaning. Semiotica 158(1/4):233–254

    Google Scholar 

  • Barbieri M (2008) Biosemiotics: a new understanding of life. Naturwissenschaften 95:577–599

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Battail G (2007) Information theory and error-correcting codes in genetics and biological evolution. In: Barbieri M (ed) Introduction to biosemiotics. Springer, Dordrecht, pp 299–345

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Battail G (2008) An outline of informational genetics. Morgan & Claypool Publishers, San Rafael

    Google Scholar 

  • Battail G (2010) Heredity as an encoded communication process. IEEE Trans Inf Theory 56:678–687

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Battail G (2014) Information and life. Springer Science + Business Media, Dordrecht

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Boniolo G (2003) Biology without information. Hist Philos Life Sci 25:255–273

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chargaff E (1963) Essays on nucleic acids. Elsevier, Amsterdam

    Google Scholar 

  • Collier J (2008) Information in biological systems. In: Adriaans P, van Benthem J (eds) Handbook of philosophy of science, volume 8, philosophy of information. Elsevier, Amsterdam

    Google Scholar 

  • Crick FHC (1957) The structure of nucleic acids and their role in protein synthesis. Biochemical Society symposium, 14. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 25–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Danchin A (2009) Bacteria as computers making computers. FEMS Microbiol Rev 33:3–26

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Descartes R (1637) Discours de la Méthode. Leiden

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffith PE (2001) Genetic information: a metaphor in search of a theory. Philos Sci 68:394–412

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griffith PE, Knight RD (1998) What is the developmental challenge? Philos Sci 65:276–288

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Higgs PG, Pudritz RE (2007) From protoplanetary disks to prebiotic amino acids and the origin of the genetic code. In: Pudritz RE, Higgs PG, Stone J (eds) Planetary systems and the origins of life. Cambridge series in astrobiology, vol 3. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Johannsen W (1909) Elemente der exacten Erblichkeitslehre. Gustav Fischer, Jena

    Google Scholar 

  • Korzybski A (1996) Science and sanity. The International Non-Aristotelean Library Publishing Company, Lakeville

    Google Scholar 

  • Lartigue C, Glass JI, Alperovich N, Pieper R, Parmar PP, Hutchison CA III, Smith HO, Venter JC (2007) Genome transplantation in bacteria: changing one species to another. Science 317:632–638

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mahner M, Bunge M (1997) Foundations of biophilosophy. Springer, Berlin

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Maynard Smith J (1986) The problems of biology. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Maynard Smith J (2000) The concept of information in biology. Philos Sci 67:177–194

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mayr E (1982) The growth of biological thought. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Sarkar S (1996) Biological information: a skeptical look at some central dogmas of molecular biology. In: Sarkar S (ed) The philosophy and history of biology. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp 187–231

    Google Scholar 

  • Sarkar S (2000) Information in genetics and developmental biology. Philos Sci 67:208–213

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shannon CE (1948) A mathematical theory of communication. Bell Syst Tech J 27:379–424 and 623–656

    Google Scholar 

  • Van Helmont JB (1648) Ortus Medicinae. Elzevir, Amsterdam

    Google Scholar 

  • Wächtershäuser G (1997) The origin of life and its methodological challenge. J Theor Biol 187:483–494

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Watson JD, Crick FHC (1953) Molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature 171:737–738. Genetical implications of the structure of deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature 171:964–967

    Google Scholar 

  • Yockey HP (1974) An application of information theory to the Central Dogma and the sequence hypothesis. J Theor Biol 46:369–406

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yockey HP (2000) Origin of life on earth and Shannon’s theory of communication. Comput Chem 24:105–123

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yockey HP (2005) Information theory, evolution, and the origin of life. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Yockey HP, Platzman RL, Quastler H (eds) (1958) Symposium on information theory in biology. Pergamon Press, New York/London

    Google Scholar 

  • Wong JTF (1981) Coevolution of genetic code and amino acid biosynthesis. TIBS 33–36

    Google Scholar 

  • Wong JT, Bronskill PM (1979) Inadequacy of prebiotic synthesis as origin of proteinous amino acids. J Mol Evol 13:115–125

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Morfologia ed Embriologia, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy

    Marcello Barbieri

Authors
  1. Marcello Barbieri
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2015 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Barbieri, M. (2015). Chemistry Versus Information. In: Code Biology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14535-8_1

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation