Nov. 6, 2012

When Biology is the Information, Col. Christian Macedonia (DARPA)

All living things derive their form from information conveyed by prior generations of living things.  As living things interact with their environment they are changed and the information they convey to future generations is changed as well.  The rapid pace of change in our understanding of the operation of the genome is re-awakening theories of biological information theoretics proposed in the middle of the 20th century.  In order to understand how biology controls the flow of information it is important of review the contributions made by theorists such as Alan Turing, Barbara McClintock, Claude Shannon, Erwin Schrödinger, George Gamow, and Norbert Weiner.   A special focus will be placed on the topic of biological timekeeping or "biochronicity" as timing is the most important management function of a biological information system. 

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