Why Cell Biology Cannot be Reduced to Physics
Alice B. Fulton,
Professor Department of Biochemistry
and Director, Honors Program, The University of Iowa
Alice
B. Fulton joined
the faculty of the Department of Biochemistry at the University
of Iowa in 1981. In 1977 she earned her Ph.D. in cell biology
from Brown University and from 1977-81 completed two
postdoctoral fellowships at Brandeis University and M.I.T.. She
has served as director of the University of Iowa Honors Program
since 1998 and as director of the Women in Science and
Engineering program from 1995-1998. Fulton's numerous
publications include articles in scientific journals, such as
Journal of Cell Biology, Molecular Genetics and
Metabolism, Pediatric Research, Proceedings of the National
Academy of Science (PNAS), and Journal of Cell Science,
as well as book chapters, review articles, and a book, The
Cytoskeleton: Cellular Architecture and Choreography. She
is a 1995 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement
of Science.
Paper
Description: The
paper explores the claim that cell biology is in many important
respects not reducible into the terms of physics, not for
practical limitations but in principle. It cannot be reduced to
physics because for many terms that it uses there is no single
nor any collection of atoms or molecules that exactly map to
that which the term from cell biology describes. The fuzzy and
historical properties of cells are described as support for this
claim and a gedanken experiment applies them to cells.
I have
avoided the "emergent properties" debate for several reasons.
One is that one possible audience for this paper would be
scientists, most of who are unfamiliar with or skeptical about
emergent properties. A second reason is that I myself have
trouble holding in mind an understanding of emergent properties
that would let me apply it to this situation.
I would also
appreciate suggestions about an audience for this paper. I wrote
it to capture the realization that the gedanken experiment
described here had implications for the reducibility to physics.
It might be appropriate as a "thought piece" in journals such as
Nature, Cell or the Journal of Cell Science. However there may
be a different audience for which it is better suited. —AF
[Thursday, November 14,
2002; 7:30-9:30
PM; 204 Jefferson Building]
