WhatIsLife.pdf

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Foreword

From early history until now, the mean survival time of mankind has

increased from less than twenty years up to more than 70 years. The

mystical and imaginative answers about life that our ancestors had have

been corrected during these centuries and been substituted for, in particular

by the ideas of modern science. The new answers have brought with them

fascinating new tools with increasing accuracy and admirably detailed and

specific knowledge. One is invited to conclude that this indisputable

correlation between survival rate and scientific progress reflects a causalrelationship as is evident, for instance, in the remarkable medical

progress made after the discovery of bacteria and viruses and the resultant

protection from infections that was generated. Modern gene technology

awakes in us the hope that the further prolongation of lifespan has no

limits at all.

It is interesting, nevertheless, that skepticism about mainstream science

comes up. This is explained by the loss of devotion to human feelings, by,for example, the standardization of therapeutic concepts of modern

apparatus medicine. Rather often people point to the decrease in quality

of life whatever this may mean. Marked changes include the dramatic

increase of costs in modern heath care, the continuing futility of the fight

against old diseases such as rheumatism and cancer, as well as against

rather modern diseases, such as allergies and AIDS, not to mention the

race against increasing resistances of bacteria, and the dramatic appearance

of psychic diseases, frustrations and depressions, environmental stress, and

bad nutrition. Environmental pollutions and the nonsustainability of human



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vi Foreword

life on the earth contribute dramatically to eroding the quality of life for

all life. All these daily events invite us to reconsiderations and a careful

analysis of our situation. These and related problems of our time teach usthat despite gigantic technical progress we do not understand enough

about what we call life.

All the efforts at solving these central problems of human development

should focus on an objective analysis instead of on ideology or an inquisitory,

but superior, attitude. In addition, it is necessary to avoid useless criticism

of modern science and technique, but, on the contrary, to take into account

most modern scientific knowledge, in order to ask first the most essential

questions, before any decisive final answers can be expected.

This goal is one of the most essential areas of inquiry at the International

Institute of Biophysics (IIB), which invites outstanding representatives of

natural sciences and scholars in the humanities from all over the whole

world to work, prepare for, and solve just these important questions of our

time. The IIB has established its center now at the Cultural Island in

Hombroich (Neuss, Germany), in order to work effectively on the problems

of an integrative biophysics, where the following conditions are fulfilledin an optimal way:

This research requires today interdisciplinary cooperation.

The work should be free of bureaucratic enforcements, and it should

involve the most outstanding scientists from all over the whole world.

The most modern scientific knowledge should be available to all the

participants.

The research should take place in an atmosphere of tolerance and

mutual understanding.

The environment should foster the unfolding of creativity.

In 1998 a first intensive workshop about fundamental questions of life

took place among biologists, physicians, and physicists of the IIB, and

outstanding scientists at German universities. The participants agreed that

the purely molecular point of view (Is Biology the Physics of yesterday?)

narrows the field of view and inquiry and is not sufficient for a good

perspective or unfolding of insights about the manifold essential interactions



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Foreword vii

of living systems. This is not to criticize or blame the fascinating progress

of molecular biology. It shall not claim that the wholistic approach gives

us more profound knowledge about life than biochemistry does. However,this remark shall help us to understand that the impressive technical

progress of molecular biology is not a guarantee for a better understanding

of life. Rather, the blind spot that arose in the transition from the

wholistic imaginations of ancient times to the modern atomistic approach

of understanding living systems could quite well develop into a field

which demands intensive attention. Actually, decisive progress in Life-

Sciences can be obtained in the future with probably only a symbiotic

cooperation between molecular biology and integrative sciences. In these

efforts, quantum theory and electrodynamics must not be neglected.

However, the question is still open whether present-day physics is sufficient

for explaining life completely.

All these agreements between scientists were confirmed by a further

workshop at Insel Hombroich in the fall of 1999. Some biochemists

and physicists of the IIB together with experts from German research

institutes and universities discussed again the famous Schrdinger questionWhat is Life?.

The manifold and original ideas, proposals, and viewpoints of the

engaged participants which are printed in this book shall not cover the fact

that in all contributions there were surprising agreements in essential points,

such as a unanimity about the fundamental role of long-range interactions

in living systems, necessary for control and regulation of the extremely

complex organization of not only the structure, but also the dynamicalprocesses. The view of the whole should not be lost in a system that

makes its mark as a whole. Provided that these links are not neglected,

new, surprising, and highly exciting answers are to be found to up-to-now

not understood biological phenomena such as cell division, differentiation,

bio-functions, , all the way up to well-being, sickness, information,

consciousness, and evolution.

This series of contributions has been ordered in such a way that the

contents start with rather general considerations and then focus more and

more on special questions. The reader can certainly read the book diagonally.



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viii Foreword

For those, however, who like to keep the links of surprise and new ideas

and essential agreements, who like to find the common kernel in different

forms of expression and disciplines from different authors, and who dontwant to lose the central theme and the whole view, we recommend reading

the contributions in the order that they are presented. The authors do not

intend to make a quantum jump forward toward knowledge about life

for this the time is certainly not ripe but they are inclined to offer this

book as a reference and nod to the great importance of this field for the

future evolution of mankind.

And finally, the book shall reflect its contents: Seriously written, but

always good for surprise, highly variable, but always based on well-

accepted scientific knowledge, controversal in some respects, but uniform

in the stream of argumentation, transferring new knowledge, but nevertheless

open to evaluation. Cest la vie!

We are greatly indebted to Heinrich Mller and Karl Schweisfurth for

understanding our motivation and for the generous hospitality that we

enjoyed at Insel Hombroich.

This volume is an extension of the bookElemente des Lebens publishedin German by the GRAUE EDITION (Editors: Prof. Dr. Walter Sauer and

Dr. Dietmar Lauermann).

Hans-Peter Drr Fritz-Albert Popp Wolfram Schommers

Insel Hombroich, December 2000



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Contents

Foreword v

List of Contributors xiii

Chapter 1 All the Colors of a Rainbow in a Worm or:

What is Life? 1

Reinhard Eichelbeck

Chapter 2 Life A Problem Inherent in the

Research Context 25

Franz-Theo Gottwald

Chapter 3 Truth and Knowledge 39

Wolfram Schommers

Chapter 4 The Formative Powers of Developing Organisms 65

Lev V. Beloussov

Chapter 5 Electromagnetic, Symbiotic and Informational

Interactions in the Kingdom of Organisms 95

Gunter M. Rothe

Chapter 6 Dead Molecules and the Live Organism 127

Roeland Van Wijk

ix



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x Contents

Chapter 7 Inanimate and Animate Matter: Orderings of

Immaterial Connectedness The Physical

Basis of Life 145Hans-Peter Drr

Chapter 8 Communication Basis of Life 167

Lebrecht von Klitzing

Chapter 9 Can Biological Effects Emerge from

Inorganic Nano-Systems? 179

Michael Rieth and Wolfram Schommers

Chapter 10 Substantial and Non-Substantial Structure in

Living Systems 199

Jiin-Ju Chang (Jinzhu Zhang)

Chapter 11 On the Essence of Life A Physical but

Nonreductionistic Examination 217

Hans-Jrgen Fischbeck

Chapter 12 Coherent Excitations in Living Biosystems and

Their Implications: A Qualitative Overview 235

G. J. Hyland

Chapter 13 Biophotonics A Powerful Tool for Investigatingand Understanding Life 279

Fritz-Albert Popp

Chapter 14 Biophoton and the Quantum Vision of Life 307

R. P. Bajpai

Chapter 15 Quantum Mechanics, Computability Theoryand Life 329

John Swain



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Contents xi

Chapter 16 BoseEinstein Condensation of Photons, Does it

Play a Vital Role in the Understanding of Life? 343

Eberhard Mller

Index 357



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List of Contributors

R. P. Bajpai

Institute of Self-Organising Systems and Biophysics

North Eastern Hill University

Shilling 793022

India

L. V. Beloussov

Department of Embryology

Moscow State University

Moscow

Russia

J.-J. Chang (Jinzhu Zhang)

Institute of Biophysics

Chinese Academy of SciencesBeijing 100101

China

H.-P. Drr

Max-Planck-Institut of Physics

Werner-Heisenberg-Institut

Fhringer Ring 6D-80805 Mnchen

Germany

xiii



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xiv List of Contributors

R. Eichelbeck

Seerichterstr. 17

D-86911 DiessenGermany

H.-J. Fischbeck

Evangelische Akademie

Mhlheim an der Ruhr

Uhlenhorstweg 29

D-45479 Mhlheim/Ruhr

Germany

F.-Th. Gottwald

Schweisfurth-Stiftung

Sdliches Schlossrondell 1

D-80638 Mnchen

Germany

G. J. Hyland

University of Warwick

Department of Physics

Coventry, CV4 7AL

UK

L. von Klitzing

Universittsklinikum Lbeck

Klin.-Experimentelle Forschungseinrichtung

Ratzeburger Allee 160

D-23538 Lbeck

Germany

E. Mller

Evangelisches Studienwerk VilligstIserlohner Str. 25

D-58239 Schwerte

Germany



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xvList of Contributors

F.-A. Popp

International Institute of Biophysics

Kappellener StrasseD-41472 Neuss

Germany

M. Rieth

Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe

Institute of Nanotechnology

P.O. Box 3640D-76021 Karlsruhe

Germany

G. M. Rothe

Institut fr Allgemeine Botanik

Johannes-Gutenberg-Universitt

Saarstr. 21D-55099 Mainz

Germany

W. Schommers

Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe

Institute of Nanotechnology

P.O. Box 3640

D-76021 Karlsruhe

Germany

J. Swain

Department of Physics

Northeastern University

Boston, MA 02115

USA



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xvi List of Contributors

R. Van Wijk

Department of Molecular Cell Biology

Utrecht UniversityPadualaan 8

3584 CH Utrecht

The Netherlands


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