Hostname: page-component-5cf477f64f-bmd9x Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-07T13:06:01.305Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Concept of Information in Biology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2022

John Maynard Smith
John Maynard Smith*
Affiliation:
School of Biological Science, University of Sussex
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The use of informational terms is widespread in molecular and developmental biology. The usage dates back to Weismann. In both protein synthesis and in later development, genes are symbols, in that there is no necessary connection between their form (sequence) and their effects. The sequence of a gene has been determined, by past natural selection, because of the effects it produces. In biology, the use of informational terms implies intentionality, in that both the form of the signal, and the response to it, have evolved by selection. Where an engineer sees design, a biologist sees natural selection.

Type
Research Article
Information
Philosophy of Science , Volume 67 , Issue 2 , June 2000 , pp. 177 - 194
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 by the Philosophy of Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

†

Send request for reprints to the author, School of Biological Science, University of Sussex, Falmer, Brighton BN1 9QG, Great Britain.

References

Apter, M. J. and Wolpert, L. (1965), “Cybernetics and Development I. Information Theory”, Journal of Theoretical Biology 8: 244–257.10.1016/0022-5193(65)90075-5CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crick, F. H. C., Griffith, J. S. and Orgel, L. E. (1957), “Codes Without Commas”, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 43: 416.10.1073/pnas.43.5.416CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crick, F. H. C., Barnett, L., Brenner, S. and Watts-Tobin, R. S. (1961), “General Nature of the Genetic Code”, Nature 192: 1227–1232.10.1038/1921227a0CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dennett, D. (1987), The Intentional Stance. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Dretske, F. (1981), Knowledge and the Flow of Information. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Gatlin, L. L. (1972), Information Theory and the Living System. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Godfrey-Smith, P. (1999), “On the Theoretical Role of Genetic Coding”, Philosophy of Science (in press).Google Scholar
Haldane, J. B. S. (1957), “The Cost of Natural Selection”, Journal of Genetics 55: 511–524.10.1007/BF02984069CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haider, G., Callaerts, P. and Gehring, W. J. (1995), “Induction of Ectopic Eyes by Targeted Expression of the Eyeless Gene in Drosophila”, Science 267: 1788–1791.Google Scholar
Jacob, F. and Monod, J. (1961), “On the Regulation of Gene Activity”, C.S.H. Symp. Quant. Biol. 26: 193–211.10.1101/SQB.1961.026.01.024CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kimura, M. (1961), “Natural Selection as a Process of Accumulating Genetic Information in Adaptive Evolution”, Genetical Research, Cambridge 2: 127–140.10.1017/S0016672300000616CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahner, M. and Bunge, M. (1997), Foundations of Biophilosophy. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York: Springer-Verlag.10.1007/978-3-662-03368-5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maynard Smith, J. (1999), “Too Good To Be True”, Nature 400: 223.10.1038/22238CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maynard Smith, J. and Harper, D. G. C., (1995) “Animal Signals: Models and Terminology”, Journal of Theoretical Biology 177: 305–311.10.1006/jtbi.1995.0248CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Monod, J. (1971), Chance and Necessity. New York: Knopf.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 Molecular Biology. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 187–231.Google Scholar
Shannon, C. E. (1948), “A Mathematical Theory of Communication”, Bell Syst. Tech. J. 27: 279–423, 623–656.10.1002/j.1538-7305.1948.tb00917.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shannon, C. E. and Weaver, W. (1949), The Mathematical Theory of Communication. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Sterelny, K. and Griffiths, P. E. (1999), Sex and Death: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Biology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.10.7208/chicago/9780226178653.001.0001CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szathmáry, E. and Smith, J. Maynard (1995), “The Major Evolutionary Transitions”, Nature 374: 227–232.10.1038/374227a0CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weismann, A. (1904), The Evolution Theory (trans. J. A. and M. R. Thomson). London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar