Abstract
The second part of this book deals with biological times and rhythms, interpreted from the relational point of view. The concept of entropy is discussed in physics and biology, with particular attention to “anti-entropy” (Bailly and Longo, J Biol Syst 17:63–96, 2009; Longo and Montévil, Front Physiol 3:39, 2012).
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Notes
- 1.
Of course, it is not possible to exclude the possibility of describing a system from its temporal evolution, but the other perspective is more interesting, at least in biology.
- 2.
An important reference has already been made to the fact that Longo and Bailly affirm that biological object is specific, while the physical one is generic, but it is important to reiterate it especially regarding to organicistic approaches (from Varela onward) which consider organization as a principle, but without proposing an invariant. The point is that Longo and Bailly’s observation digs an unbridgeable groove between biology and physics to ensure a theoretical space proper to biology. In fact, organicist approach reduces the biological object to physical one, precisely because it claims to find a general invariant.
- 3.
Viviani (1907, p. 603): “… with the sagacity of his ingenuity he [Galilei] invented that very simple and regulated measure of time by means of the pendulum, not previously perceived by anyone else, taking the opportunity to observe it from the motion of a lamp, when one day he was in the Cathedral of Pisa; and making very exact experiences of it, he ascertained the equality of its vibrations and at that time it occurred to him to adapt it to the use of medicine for measuring the frequency of the wrists, to the amazement and delight of the physicians of those days and as it is also normally practiced today: he made use of this invention in various experiments and measurements of times and motions, and was the first to apply it to celestial observations, with incredible purchase in astronomy and geography”.
- 4.
This issue will be clarified in the last chapter. Using a geometrical point of view (symmetry), it is possible to avoid theoretical problems as reductionism in order to focus on what emerge from the relation among elements of a system.
- 5.
Some ideas of Noble will be discussed specifically in the last part of this text.
- 6.
In this sense, the Wheeler-De Witt equation does not consider “ time” as variable.
- 7.
Laplace states: “More often than not, the phenomena of nature are complicated by extraneous causes: an enormous number of disturbing causes mix their influence with them, so much so that it is very difficult to recognize them. In order to reach it, it is necessary to multiply the observations or experiments, so that, by mutually destroying the extraneous effects, the average results highlight phenomena and their various elements” (Laplace 1840, pp. 298–299). In addition to specifying that average values are what should be considered, Laplace argues that perturbations are mere noise. Maxwell’s distribution function “considers only the number of molecules that have a certain property and not the relationships (dynamics) that exist between them” (Badino 2010, p. 14). It is well known that the idea that probability has its own epistemological status is at basis of quantum mechanics.
- 8.
As it will be shown, in biology it remains possible to describe change “into” time, but, in the last instance, it is always “marked” by changes of space of phases and by rare events, where there are symmetries breakings. As in general relativity (Lachièze-Rey 2008), once a reference system is provided, it is possible to study its objects, referring to them system measurements, even if they are always linked to spaces and only indirectly to phenotypes.
- 9.
Replacing one invariant with another (God, DNA or organization) simply means changing content and maintain the same thought pattern. Where a new approach is proposed, it is necessary to work mainly on method.
- 10.
A very clear physical example is ferromagnetic transition. Its limitation is that, unlike biology, there is no “density” of critical transitions (Bailly and Longo 2006).
- 11.
From the medical point of view, this does not imply that such an increase is always positive for the preservation of an organism, but, from the strictly biological point of view, it certainly represents a very important element from all points of view.
- 12.
Fractality is certainly an extremely useful tool in this regard. From the general point of view, it shows a not absolute invariance, but a constructive one, as it is not given a priori, but it is about properties obtained by studying the “form” produced by biological relations.
- 13.
In the next chapters, after having introduced and reinterpreted the notion of “closures of constraints” (Montévil and Mossio 2015), it will certainly be easier to understand how applying the theoretical object of relational biology, namely the relational space.
- 14.
This issue will be deepen in the next chapter.
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Marinucci, A. (2023). Considerations About Physical and Biological Time. In: Theoretical Principles of Relational Biology. Human Perspectives in Health Sciences and Technology, vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-39374-7_5
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