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Lessons From the Living Cell: The Limits of Reductionism |
List Price: $24.95
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Reviews |
Description:
How much can we learn about life by looking at its constituent parts? Biologist Stephen Rothman asks the big questions in pursuit of a relatively small answer in Lessons from the Living Cell, equal parts research discussion and philosophical argument. While working on cellular protein transport in the 1960s, Rothman found evidence contradicting the widely held vesicle theory; in the course of his work, he came to the conclusion that the theory's base was skimpy at best. His stories of frustrating battles with the scientific status quo, though clearly biased, still offer a refreshing look at the mechanisms of scientific debate. Rothman presses on to attack what he calls "microreductionism," the belief that any system can be understood by a thorough analysis of its components. This, he says, isn't true for self-organizing systems like living beings, and his arguments are strong and forcefully written. The scientifically literate reader will find Lessons from the Living Cell a challenging polemic against the proximate and ultimate causes of theoretical inertia in biology and beyond. --Rob Lightner
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