Abstract
In 1958, Francis Crick distinguished the flow of information from the flow of matter and the flow of energy in the mechanism of protein synthesis. Crick’s claims about information flow and coding in molecular biology are viewed from the perspective of a new characterization of mechanisms (Machamer, Darden, and Craver 2000) and from the perspective of information as holding a key to distinguishing work in molecular biology from that of biochemistry in the 1950s–1970s (Darden and Craver 2002). Flow of matter from beginning to end does not occur in the protein synthesis mechanism; flow of information (from Crick’s perspective) does. The flow of information and coding in molecular biological mechanisms are distinguished, on the one hand, from formal information theory, and, on the other, from information as used in cognitive neuroscience, where information and representation are often coupled.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bechtel W, Richardson RC (1993) Discovering Complexity: Decomposition and Localization as Strategies in Scientific Research. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Brandon RB (1985) Grene on mechanism and reductionism: More than just a side issue. In: PSA 1984, Vol. 2 (Asquith PD, Kitcher P, eds), 345–353. East Lansing, MI: Philosophy of Science Association.
Burian RM (1996) Underappreciated pathways toward molecular genetics as illustrated by Jean Brachet’s cytochemical embryology. In: The Philosophy and History of Molecular Biology: New Perspectives (Sarkar S, ed), 67–85. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Cairns J, Overbaugh J, Miller S (1988) The origin of mutants. Nature 335: 142–145.
Craver CF (2001) Role functions, mechanisms, and hierarchy. Philosophy of Science 68: 53–74.
Craver CF, Darden L (2001) Discovering mechanisms in neurobiology: The case of spatial memory. In: Theory and Method in the Neurosciences (Machamer P, Grush R, McLaughlin P, eds), 112–137. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Crick F (1958) On protein synthesis. Symposium of the Society of Experimental Biology 12: 138–163.
Crick F (1970) Central dogma of molecular biology. Nature 227: 561–563.
Crick F (1988) What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery. New York: Basic Books.
Darden L (1991) Theory Change in Science: Strategies From Mendelian Genetics. New York: Oxford University Press.
Darden L (1995) Exemplars, abstractions, and anomalies: Representations and theory change in Mendelian and molecular genetics. In: Concepts, Theories, and Rationality in the Biological Sciences (Lennox JG, Wolters G, eds), 137–158. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Darden L (1998) Anomaly-driven theory redesign: Computational philosophy of science experiments. In: The Digital Phoenix: How Computers are Changing Philosophy (Bynum TW, Moor J, eds), 62–78. Oxford: Blackwell.
Darden L (2002) Strategies for discovering mechanisms: Schemainstantiation, modular subassembly, forward/backward chaining. Philosophy of Science 69: S354–S365.
Darden L (2006) Reasoning in Biological Discoveries: Mechanisms, Interfield Relations, and Anomaly Resolution. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Darden L, Craver C (2002) Strategies in the interfield discovery of the mechanism of protein synthesis. Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 33: 1–28.
Darden L, Maull N (1977) Interfield theories. Philosophy of Science 44: 43–64.
Darden L, Tabery J (2005) Molecular biology. In: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Zalta EN, ed). http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/molecular-biology/
Ephrussi B, Leopold U, Watson JD, Weigle JJ (1953) Terminology in bacterial genetics. Nature 171: 701.
Foster PL (1999) Mechanisms of stationary phase mutation: A decade of adaptive mutation. Annual Review of Genetics 33: 57–88.
Glennan SS (1996) Mechanisms and the nature of causation. Erkenntnis 44: 49–71.
Grush R (2001) The semantic challenge to computational neuroscience. In: Theory and Method in the Neurosciences (Machamer P, Grush R, McLaughlin P, eds), 155–172. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Hanson NR (1963) The Concept of the Positron: A Philosophical Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hoagland MB (1955) An enzymic mechanism for amino acid activation in animal tissues. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 16: 288–289.
Hoagland MB (1996) Biochemistry or molecular biology? The discovery of ‘soluble RNA’. Trends in Biological Sciences Letters (TIBS) 21: 77–80.
Holmes FL (1991) Hans Krebs: The Formation of a Scientific Life 1900–1933. Vol. 1. New York: Oxford University Press.
Holmes FL (1993) Hans Krebs: Architect of Intermediary Metabolism. Vol. 2. New York: Oxford University Press.
Jacob F, Monod J (1961) Genetic regulatory mechanisms in the synthesis of proteins. Journal of Molecular Biology 3: 318–356.
Judson HF (1996) The Eighth Day of Creation: The Makers of the Revolution in Biology. Expanded ed. Cold Spring Harbor, NY: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press.
Kay LE (2000) Who Wrote the Book of Life? A History of the Genetic Code. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Keyes M (1999a) The prion challenge to the “central dogma” of molecular biology, 1965–1991: I. Prelude to prions. Studies in the History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 30: 1–19.
Keyes M (1999b) The prion challenge to the “central dogma” of molecular biology, 1965–1991. II. The problem with prions. Studies in the History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences 30: 181–218.
Machamer P, Darden L, Craver C (2000) Thinking about mechanisms. Philosophy of Science 67: 1–25.
Morange M (1998) A History of Molecular Biology. Translated from French by Matthew Cobb. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Olby R (1970) Francis Crick, DNA, and the central dogma. In: The Twentieth Century Sciences (Holton G, ed), 227–280. New York: Norton.
Olby R (1994) The Path to the Double Helix: The Discovery of DNA. Revised ed. Mineola, NY: Dover.
Rheinberger H-J (1997) Towards a History of Epistemic Things: Synthesizing Proteins in the Test Tube. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
Sarkar S (1996) Decoding “coding”—information and DNA. BioScience 46: 857–864.
Schrödinger E (1944) What Is Life? Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Skipper RA (1999) Selection and the extent of explanatory unification. Philosophy of Science 66: S196–S209.
Steele EJ, Lindley RA, Blanden RB (1998) Lamarck’s Signature. Reading, MA: Perseus Books.
Thagard P (1999) How Scientists Explain Disease. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Victor JD (2006). Approaches to information-theoretic analysis of neural activity. Biological Theory 1: 302–316.
Watson JD (1965) Molecular Biology of the Gene. New York: Benjamin.
Watson JD (1968) The Double Helix. New York: New American Library.
Watson JD (1970) Molecular Biology of the Gene. 2nd ed. New York: Benjamin.
Watson JD (2002) Genes, Girls, and Gamow. New York: Knopf.
Watson JD, Crick FHC (1953a) A structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature 171: 737–738.
Watson JD, Crick FHC (1953b) Genetical implications of the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid. Nature 171: 964–967. Reprinted in: The Double Helix, A Norton Critical Edition (Stent G, ed), 241–246. New York: Norton, 1980.
Wimsatt WC (1972) Complexity and organization. In: PSA 1972 (Schaffner KF, Cohen RS, eds), 67–86. Dordrecht: Reidel.
Zamecnik PC (1953) Incorporation of radioactivity from DL-leucine-1-C14 into proteins of rat liver homogenate. Federation Proceedings 12: 295.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Darden, L. Flow of Information in Molecular Biological Mechanisms. Biol Theory 1, 280–287 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1162/biot.2006.1.3.280
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1162/biot.2006.1.3.280