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Ludus Vitalis

Revista científica. Nº 36. Vol. XIX. 2011. Ciudad de México (México)
Editado por: Centro de Estudios Filosóficos Políticos y Sociales Vicente lombardo Toledano de la Secretaría de Educación Pública, la Universitat de les Illes Balears, La Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana-Iztapalapa y la Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia

ISSN: 1133-5165
Ciencias Naturales, Ciencias Sociales: Evolucionismo, Ciencias de la Vida, Ciencias de la Computación, Ciencias de la Comunicación, Antropología, Etnología, Historia, Psicología, Sociología, Filosofía, Lenguaje y Lingüística.
Palabras clave: evolución, interdisciplinar, filosofía de la biología, biopoder, disciplina, altruismo, lenguaje, ecología

Descripción:

Este número está dedicado a evolucionismo, epistemología, lo humano, técnica y naturaleza, el juego de los conceptos, debates y un foro dedicado a “las posibilidades de la interdisciplina”.

1. De la Historia Natural a la Biología Evolucionista. Aplicación del Modelo de Lakatos (Español)

María Elena Bernal Vera. Catedrática metodología de la investigación, Universidad de Caldas, Manizales Colombia, marielberve@hotmail.com Elmer Castaño Ramírez. Profesor titular de metodología de la investigación en Medicina Veterinaria y Agronomía, Universidad de Caldas, Manizales, Colombia, elmercr@ucaldas.edu.co

Evolutionary biology history is recounted here using Lakatos’ model. We deal with the transformation of the natural history research program to the evolutionary biology one. Lakatos’ framework allows us to study step by step the transformations within theoretical structures, conferring rationality to science changes. Such scheme fits adequately in physics, yet for biology demands some artificial basic assumptions.

Palabras clave: Modelo de Lakatos, el cambio científico, historia natural, biología evolutiva, programa de investigación

2. La Biología como Forma de Representación: Wittgenstein y la Partitura de la Vida (Español)

Fernando Baquero. Departamento de Microbiología, IRYCIS, Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal, y División de Extremófilos y Biología Evolutiva, Centro de Astrobiología, INTA-CSIC, Madrid / Centro de Investigación en Red en Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid, marielberve@hotmail.com José Aguilar Rodríguez. Instituto Cavanilles de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva, Universidad de Valencia y Área de Genómica y Salud, Centro Superior de Investigación en Salud Pública (CSISP), Consellería de Sanitat, Valencia, España. Andrés Moya. Centro de Investigación en Red en Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid / Instituto Cavanilles de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva, Universidad de Valencia y Área de Genómica y Salud, Centro Superior de Investigación en Salud Pública (CSISP), Consellería de Sanitat, Valencia, andresmoya@uv.es

We consider here that the metaphor life’s score is more complex yet more precise than the classic book of life when facing the real difficulties in studying the predictive relevance of the decoding process of genetic language.
One key epistemological problem lies on our capacity to clarify the relationships between the structure of a possible language (genetic and genomic sequences) and the vital characteristics of particular organisms that seem to be determined by such language. This is a typical reductionist problem: can life be understood by being reduced to a genetic-genomic language?

Palabras clave: libro de la vida, partitura musical, puntuación, sintaxis, semántica, complejidad de la vida, representación

3. La Biosemiótica y la Biología Cognitiva en Organismos sin Sistema Nervioso (Español)

Óscar Castro García. Departamento de Filosofía de la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, y OAS-BioAstronomy Group, Observatorio Astronómico de Segurilla (OAS), Toledo, oscarcastrogarcia@yahoo.es

Biosemiotics is a discipline that emerged in the 1960s from studying communication and transfer of signs and signals between animals (zoosemiotic) by the semiologist Thomas Sebeok. Its origin can be placed a hundred years ago in the works of the biologist and philosopher Jakob von Uexküll, who develop a “theory of meaning” (Bedeutungslehre) to describe (with the minimal possible anthropocentricity) how animals perceive their environment and inner world. It is review here the conditions of possibility for cognitive processes in organisms without a nervous system, where some events lead us to propose ways of learning and behavior influenced not only by basic tropisms. We study the biosemiotic cognitive foundations within slime molds and bacteria, in order to establish a possible phenomenological biology, based on the measurement of minimal perception thresholds.

Palabras clave: libro de la vida, partitura musical, puntuación, sintaxis, semántica, complejidad de la vida, representación

4. COÜTS ET BÉNÉFICES DANS LES MODELES MUTUALISTES: LE PROBLÉME DES MARCHES BIOLOGIQUES (Français)

Olivier Perru. EA S2HEP, Sciences, Societé, Historicité, Education, Practiques. Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, olivier.perru@univ-lyonl.fr

In this paper we consider mutualism and biological markets from an epistemological viewpoint. Dynamical population's models don't allow for the benefits and costs of mutualism. In his studies, Steven A. Frank considers these benefits and costs are expressed in the increasement or reduction of the growth rate of genotypes, extending this perspective to the population level. At the organism level, Keeler's models of costs and benefits posit a theoretical representation of plant-fungus interacting to some degree. However, biological markets seem more be more precisely expressed as the balance of trade. Classic economic theory shows that nations or firms can benefit from specializing in their production and trading with others. These models adequately describe the adaptation of mycorhizal fungi. Generally, mutualistic symbioses correspond more to these models than to facultative mutualisms (as mutualistic pollination).

Palabras clave: mutualismo, modelos mutualistas, beneficios, costos, mercados biológicos, teoría económica

5. The Adventures of Information in the Land of Hi-Fi and HD (English)

Juan Felipe Guevara Aristizabal. Instituto de Biología, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, juanfga@gmail.com

The concept of information has acquired a substantial power in biology, becoming the mayor metaphor of modern biology. This has allowed the development of disciplines such as recombinant DNA technology, transgenic organisms, genome sequencing, and what we now call biotechnology. Yet its birth was much humbler and did not encompass so many options. The concept of information in biology could achieve a much-refined stance than just the equivalent of genetic information by enlarging its conceptual scope, not limited to molecular terms but dealing with higher levels of organization. It is intended here to lay the bases for an updated comprehension of information, widening its perspective within this land of hi-fi and HD that biology has become.

Palabras clave: información, programa genético, información digital, información de posición, información estructural, complementariedad, biosemántica

6. Jerarquías Ecológicas. Intentos Reductivos de la Fisiología a Través de la Macroecología (Español)

Guillermo Folguera. Grupo de Investigación de Historia de la Ciencia, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, guillefolguera@yahoo.com.ar Federico Di Pasquo. Grupo de Investigación de Filosofía de las Ciencias. CONICET

Since the XVII century, the notion of 'hierarchy' has been relevant in conceptualizing life by different authors. In the last century, the levels within hierarchical structures have been correlated to different subdisciplines in biology. We analyze in their epistemological and ontological dimensions the relationship between different branches in ecology (population ecology, community ecology and ecosystem ecology) and macroecology. We argue that, in the last two decades, there has been an epistemological and ontological reductive attempt from these subdisciplines towards macroecology. Our conclusion is that this reduction does not seem to be strictly focused to macroecology and their corresponding biological entities, but rather to theories and entities coming from physiology.

Palabras clave: ecología, ecología de comunidades, fisiología, jerarquías, macroecología, niveles de organización

7. La Carga Teórica de la Mirada Antropológica: el Gesto “Orientalista” en el México Desconocido de Carl Lumholtz (Español)

Aäron Moszowski. Posgrado en Filosofía de la Ciencia, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, moszowski75@yahoo.com.mx

The Norwegian explorer C. S. Lumholtz, who in the late-nineteenth century realized four expeditions to the Sierra Madre Occidental, and in 1902 published Unknown Mexico, has been accused of being an “Orientalist” in the E. W. Said’s sense of the term. My main objective is to explore this thesis. I argue that, although Said misrepresented Orientalism as a foucaultian discourse, the viewpoint that underlies Lumholtz’s Unknown Mexico is more a gesture attuned to a post-colonial form of dependency.

Palabras clave: Carl Lumholtz, Edward W. Said, orientalismo, teoría observación, régimen visual

8. Patentar la Vida: un poco de Metafísica y otro poco de Empiria (Español)

María Julia Bertomeu. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Universidad Nacional de La Plata, mjbertomeu@gmail.com

Patents are temporary monopolies conceded by political authorities to private agents on the grounds that they support the public interest. Since Locke, there has been a lot of philosophical and legal discussion on the conditions under which the fiduciary privatization of “commons”, i.e., public resources held in common, should proceed. An important legal, philosophical and economic debate has recently begun on the privatization of life forms through patents. Alter restating the fiduciary conception of private appropriation based on Lockean grounds and on the tradition of our modern positive legal framework, this paper explores some of the metaphysical, legal, political and economic issues involved in the current discussion.

Palabras clave: patentes, privatización de bienes comunes, recursos, Locke, vida, sustancia, accidente, mercados, metafísica, oligopolio

9. El Biopoder de la Biotecnología o el Biotecnopoder. Aportes para una Bio(S)Ética (Español)

Santiago Díaz. Departamento de Filosofía, Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Attarief786@hotmail.com

It is asked here about the subjectivity to be produced by biotechnology as this power that affects human life, by its new discourses and practices. What kind of subjectivity is made possible with the knowledge and manipulation of the genetic code? What powers do biotechnologies bring about? How does this affect our prospects for new corporal productions? What ethical foundation can be elaborated to solve the bioethical conflicts posit by biotechnologies?
An overview of the situation is shown and it is advanced a possible solution to the danger carried by this activities. It should start with the constitution of self-care subjectivity and the ’ethic of convergence’ proposal, in addition to demand for the adequate development of the new technologies, always facing its possible benefits to all humankind.

Palabras clave: Poder, biopoder, biotecnología, genética, bioética, convergencia ética, subjetividad, Foucault, filosofía de la tecnología

10. Synthetic Life, what for and what future? (English)

Armando Aranda Anzaldo. Laboratorio de Biología Molecular, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Toluca, aaa@uaemex.mx

This text answer the question, posted by the editor, on the philosophical, scientific and social problems followed from the synthetic ensemble of the modified genome of the bacteria M. Mycoides, announced in May 2010 by the J. Craig Venter Institute.

Palabras clave: vida, vida sintética, célula viva, DNA

11. The Dream of Synthetic Life generates Recombinant Organisms endowed with unpredictable Risks (“El Sueño de la Razón produce Monstruos”) (English)

Gabriel Gachelin. Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Laboratoire SPHERE, UMR 7219 CNRS, Paris, ggachel@club-internet.fr Valerie Chansigaud. Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Laboratoire SPHERE, UMR 7219 CNRS, Paris, valerie.chansigaud@noos.fr

This text answer the question, posted by the editor, on the philosophical, scientific and social problems followed from the synthetic ensemble of the modified genome of the bacteria M. Mycoides, announced in May 2010 by the J. Craig Venter Institute.

Palabras clave: vida, vida sintética, célula viva, DNA, naturaleza, organismo vivo, inorgánico

12. De Células Vivas, Teléfonos Celulares y Desplantes Tecnológicos (Español)

Diego González Halphen. Departamento de Genética Molecular, Instituto de Fisiología Celular, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, dhalphen@ifc.unam.mx

Este texto responde a la pregunta propuesta por el editor acerca de los problemas científicos, filosóficos y sociales derivados del ensamble sintético del genoma modificado de la bacteria M. Mycoides, anunciado en mayo del 2010 por el Instituto J. Craig Venter.

Palabras clave: vida, vida sintética, célula viva, DNA, naturaleza, organismo vivo, inorgánico, tecnología

13. Biología Filosófica: un Puente Epistemológico entre la Biología Mecanicista y las Ciencias Humano/Sociales (Español)

Oscar Fernández. UNEFA, Caracas, osfernandezve@hotmail.com

We intend to establish some standpoints, from E. Morin’s proposal on epistemological complexity, that can inter/retroact to understand the internal and external dynamics in philosophical biology. This must be seen as an epistemic bridge between seemingly contrarian paradigms, yet from a complementary vision they are concurrent dimensions, thus cooperative. Such viewpoint refers to the logical complex goal of philosophical biology.

Palabras clave: vida, vida sintética, célula viva, DNA, naturaleza, organismo vivo, inorgánico, tecnología

14. Epistemology in Life Sciences. An Integrative Approach to a Complex System like Cancer (English)

Marta Bertolaso. Institute of Philosophy of Scientific and Technological Activity, University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome, m.bertolaso@unicampus.it

Artículo escrito para el foro "posibilidades de la interdisciplina".

Palabras clave: cancer, sistemas complejos, ciencias de la vida, Hierarchy theory



VER MÁS PUBLICACIONES DEL REPOSITORIO SELECCIONANDO AQUÍ

Biología Filosófica: un Puente Epistemológico entre la Biología Mecanicista y las Ciencias Humano/Sociales (Español)

Ludus Vitalis. Núm. 36 (2011)

Oscar Fernández. UNEFA, Caracas, osfernandezve@hotmail.com

We intend to establish some standpoints, from E. Morin’s proposal on epistemological complexity, that can inter/retroact to understand the internal and external dynamics in philosophical biology. This must be seen as an epistemic bridge between seemingly contrarian paradigms, yet from a complementary vision they are concurrent dimensions, thus cooperative. Such viewpoint refers to the logical complex goal of philosophical biology.

Palabras clave: vida, vida sintética, célula viva, DNA, naturaleza, organismo vivo, inorgánico, tecnología

COÜTS ET BÉNÉFICES DANS LES MODELES MUTUALISTES: LE PROBLÉME DES MARCHES BIOLOGIQUES (Français)

Ludus Vitalis. Núm. 36 (2011)

Olivier Perru. EA S2HEP, Sciences, Societé, Historicité, Education, Practiques. Université de Lyon, Université Lyon 1, olivier.perru@univ-lyonl.fr

In this paper we consider mutualism and biological markets from an epistemological viewpoint. Dynamical population’s models don’t allow for the benefits and costs of mutualism. In his studies, Steven A. Frank considers these benefits and costs are expressed in the increasement or reduction of the growth rate of genotypes, extending this perspective to the population level. At the organism level, Keeler’s models of costs and benefits posit a theoretical representation of plant-fungus interacting to some degree. However, biological markets seem more be more precisely expressed as the balance of trade. Classic economic theory shows that nations or firms can benefit from specializing in their production and trading with others. These models adequately describe the adaptation of mycorhizal fungi. Generally, mutualistic symbioses correspond more to these models than to facultative mutualisms (as mutualistic pollination).

Palabras clave: mutualismo, modelos mutualistas, beneficios, costos, mercados biológicos, teoría económica

De Células Vivas, Teléfonos Celulares y Desplantes Tecnológicos (Español)

Ludus Vitalis. Núm. 36 (2011)

Diego González Halphen. Departamento de Genética Molecular, Instituto de Fisiología Celular, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, dhalphen@ifc.unam.mx

Este texto responde a la pregunta propuesta por el editor acerca de los problemas científicos, filosóficos y sociales derivados del ensamble sintético del genoma modificado de la bacteria M. Mycoides, anunciado en mayo del 2010 por el Instituto J. Craig Venter.

Palabras clave: vida, vida sintética, célula viva, DNA, naturaleza, organismo vivo, inorgánico, tecnología

De la Historia Natural a la Biología Evolucionista. Aplicación del Modelo de Lakatos (Español)

Ludus Vitalis. Núm. 36 (2011)

María Elena Bernal Vera. Catedrática metodología de la investigación, Universidad de Caldas, Manizales Colombia, marielberve@hotmail.com
Elmer Castaño Ramírez. Profesor titular de metodología de la investigación en Medicina Veterinaria y Agronomía, Universidad de Caldas, Manizales, Colombia, elmercr@ucaldas.edu.co

Evolutionary biology history is recounted here using Lakatos’ model. We deal with the transformation of the natural history research program to the evolutionary biology one. Lakatos’ framework allows us to study step by step the transformations within theoretical structures, conferring rationality to science changes. Such scheme fits adequately in physics, yet for biology demands some artificial basic assumptions.

Palabras clave: Modelo de Lakatos, el cambio científico, historia natural, biología evolutiva, programa de investigación

El Biopoder de la Biotecnología o el Biotecnopoder. Aportes para una Bio(S)Ética (Español)

Ludus Vitalis. Núm. 36 (2011)

Santiago Díaz. Departamento de Filosofía, Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata, Attarief786@hotmail.com

It is asked here about the subjectivity to be produced by biotechnology as this power that affects human life, by its new discourses and practices. What kind of subjectivity is made possible with the knowledge and manipulation of the genetic code? What powers do biotechnologies bring about? How does this affect our prospects for new corporal productions? What ethical foundation can be elaborated to solve the bioethical conflicts posit by biotechnologies?
An overview of the situation is shown and it is advanced a possible solution to the danger carried by this activities. It should start with the constitution of self-care subjectivity and the ’ethic of convergence’ proposal, in addition to demand for the adequate development of the new technologies, always facing its possible benefits to all humankind.

Palabras clave: Poder, biopoder, biotecnología, genética, bioética, convergencia ética, subjetividad, Foucault, filosofía de la tecnología

Epistemology in Life Sciences. An Integrative Approach to a Complex System like Cancer (English)

Ludus Vitalis. Núm. 36 (2011)

Marta Bertolaso. Institute of Philosophy of Scientific and Technological Activity, University Campus Bio-Medico of Rome, m.bertolaso@unicampus.it

Artículo escrito para el foro “posibilidades de la interdisciplina”.

Palabras clave: cancer, sistemas complejos, ciencias de la vida, Hierarchy theory

Jerarquías Ecológicas. Intentos Reductivos de la Fisiología a Través de la Macroecología (Español)

Ludus Vitalis. Núm. 36 (2011)

Guillermo Folguera. Grupo de Investigación de Historia de la Ciencia, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, guillefolguera@yahoo.com.ar
Federico Di Pasquo. Grupo de Investigación de Filosofía de las Ciencias. CONICET

Since the XVII century, the notion of ‘hierarchy’ has been relevant in conceptualizing life by different authors. In the last century, the levels within hierarchical structures have been correlated to different subdisciplines in biology. We analyze in their epistemological and ontological dimensions the relationship between different branches in ecology (population ecology, community ecology and ecosystem ecology) and macroecology. We argue that, in the last two decades, there has been an epistemological and ontological reductive attempt from these subdisciplines towards macroecology. Our conclusion is that this reduction does not seem to be strictly focused to macroecology and their corresponding biological entities, but rather to theories and entities coming from physiology.

Palabras clave: ecología, ecología de comunidades, fisiología, jerarquías, macroecología, niveles de organización

La Biología como Forma de Representación: Wittgenstein y la Partitura de la Vida (Español)

Ludus Vitalis. Núm. 36 (2011)

Fernando Baquero. Departamento de Microbiología, IRYCIS, Hospital Universitario Ramón y Cajal, y División de Extremófilos y Biología Evolutiva, Centro de Astrobiología, INTA-CSIC, Madrid / Centro de Investigación en Red en Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid, marielberve@hotmail.com
José Aguilar Rodríguez. Instituto Cavanilles de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva, Universidad de Valencia y Área de Genómica y Salud, Centro Superior de Investigación en Salud Pública (CSISP), Consellería de Sanitat, Valencia, España.
Andrés Moya. Centro de Investigación en Red en Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP), Madrid / Instituto Cavanilles de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva, Universidad de Valencia y Área de Genómica y Salud, Centro Superior de Investigación en Salud Pública (CSISP), Consellería de Sanitat, Valencia, andresmoya@uv.es

We consider here that the metaphor life’s score is more complex yet more precise than the classic book of life when facing the real difficulties in studying the predictive relevance of the decoding process of genetic language.
One key epistemological problem lies on our capacity to clarify the relationships between the structure of a possible language (genetic and genomic sequences) and the vital characteristics of particular organisms that seem to be determined by such language. This is a typical reductionist problem: can life be understood by being reduced to a genetic-genomic language?

Palabras clave: libro de la vida, partitura musical, puntuación, sintaxis, semántica, complejidad de la vida, representación

La Biosemiótica y la Biología Cognitiva en Organismos sin Sistema Nervioso (Español)

Ludus Vitalis. Núm. 36 (2011)

Óscar Castro García. Departamento de Filosofía de la Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona, y OAS-BioAstronomy Group, Observatorio Astronómico de Segurilla (OAS), Toledo, oscarcastrogarcia@yahoo.es

Biosemiotics is a discipline that emerged in the 1960s from studying communication and transfer of signs and signals between animals (zoosemiotic) by the semiologist Thomas Sebeok. Its origin can be placed a hundred years ago in the works of the biologist and philosopher Jakob von Uexküll, who develop a “theory of meaning” (Bedeutungslehre) to describe (with the minimal possible anthropocentricity) how animals perceive their environment and inner world. It is review here the conditions of possibility for cognitive processes in organisms without a nervous system, where some events lead us to propose ways of learning and behavior influenced not only by basic tropisms. We study the biosemiotic cognitive foundations within slime molds and bacteria, in order to establish a possible phenomenological biology, based on the measurement of minimal perception thresholds.

Palabras clave: libro de la vida, partitura musical, puntuación, sintaxis, semántica, complejidad de la vida, representación

La Carga Teórica de la Mirada Antropológica: el Gesto “Orientalista” en el México Desconocido de Carl Lumholtz (Español)

Ludus Vitalis. Núm. 36 (2011)

Aäron Moszowski. Posgrado en Filosofía de la Ciencia, Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, moszowski75@yahoo.com.mx

The Norwegian explorer C. S. Lumholtz, who in the late-nineteenth century realized four expeditions to the Sierra Madre Occidental, and in 1902 published Unknown Mexico, has been accused of being an “Orientalist” in the E. W. Said’s sense of the term. My main objective is to explore this thesis. I argue that, although Said misrepresented Orientalism as a foucaultian discourse, the viewpoint that underlies Lumholtz’s Unknown Mexico is more a gesture attuned to a post-colonial form of dependency.

Palabras clave: Carl Lumholtz, Edward W. Said, orientalismo, teoría observación, régimen visual

Patentar la Vida: un poco de Metafísica y otro poco de Empiria (Español)

Ludus Vitalis. Núm. 36 (2011)

María Julia Bertomeu. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Universidad Nacional de La Plata, mjbertomeu@gmail.com

Patents are temporary monopolies conceded by political authorities to private agents on the grounds that they support the public interest. Since Locke, there has been a lot of philosophical and legal discussion on the conditions under which the fiduciary privatization of “commons”, i.e., public resources held in common, should proceed. An important legal, philosophical and economic debate has recently begun on the privatization of life forms through patents. Alter restating the fiduciary conception of private appropriation based on Lockean grounds and on the tradition of our modern positive legal framework, this paper explores some of the metaphysical, legal, political and economic issues involved in the current discussion.

Palabras clave: patentes, privatización de bienes comunes, recursos, Locke, vida, sustancia, accidente, mercados, metafísica, oligopolio

Synthetic Life, what for and what future? (English)

Ludus Vitalis. Núm. 36 (2011)

Armando Aranda Anzaldo. Laboratorio de Biología Molecular, Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Toluca, aaa@uaemex.mx

This text answer the question, posted by the editor, on the philosophical, scientific and social problems followed from the synthetic ensemble of the modified genome of the bacteria M. Mycoides, announced in May 2010 by the J. Craig Venter Institute.

Palabras clave: vida, vida sintética, célula viva, DNA

The Adventures of Information in the Land of Hi-Fi and HD (English)

Ludus Vitalis. Núm. 36 (2011)

Juan Felipe Guevara Aristizabal. Instituto de Biología, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín, juanfga@gmail.com

The concept of information has acquired a substantial power in biology, becoming the mayor metaphor of modern biology. This has allowed the development of disciplines such as recombinant DNA technology, transgenic organisms, genome sequencing, and what we now call biotechnology. Yet its birth was much humbler and did not encompass so many options. The concept of information in biology could achieve a much-refined stance than just the equivalent of genetic information by enlarging its conceptual scope, not limited to molecular terms but dealing with higher levels of organization. It is intended here to lay the bases for an updated comprehension of information, widening its perspective within this land of hi-fi and HD that biology has become.

Palabras clave: información, programa genético, información digital, información de posición, información estructural, complementariedad, biosemántica

The Dream of Synthetic Life generates Recombinant Organisms endowed with unpredictable Risks (“El Sueño de la Razón produce Monstruos”) (English)

Ludus Vitalis. Núm. 36 (2011)

Gabriel Gachelin. Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Laboratoire SPHERE, UMR 7219 CNRS, Paris, ggachel@club-internet.fr
Valerie Chansigaud. Université Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Laboratoire SPHERE, UMR 7219 CNRS, Paris, valerie.chansigaud@noos.fr

This text answer the question, posted by the editor, on the philosophical, scientific and social problems followed from the synthetic ensemble of the modified genome of the bacteria M. Mycoides, announced in May 2010 by the J. Craig Venter Institute.

Palabras clave: vida, vida sintética, célula viva, DNA, naturaleza, organismo vivo, inorgánico

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