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Theoretical biology is a field of academic study and research that involves the use of models and theories in biology.

Initial scientific efforts to understand complex biological phenomena, such as evolution by natural selection or human consciousness, can be described as theoretical "framework" approaches.^{[weasel words]}^{[citation needed]} The common use of this word throughout the biological literature^{[original research?]} has only recently culminated in a formal definition^{[original research?]} offered by Francis Crick and Christof Koch:

"A framework is not a detailed hypothesis or set of hypotheses; rather, it is a suggested point of view for an attack on a scientific problem, often suggesting testable hypotheses. Biological frameworks differ from frameworks in physics and chemistry because of the nature of evolution. Biological systems do not have rigid laws, as physics has. Evolution produces mechanisms, and often submechanisms, so that there are few “rules” in biology which do not have occasional exceptions.

A good framework is one that sounds reasonably plausible relative to available scientific data and that turns out to be largely correct. It is unlikely to be correct in all the details. A framework often contains unstated (and often unrecognized) assumptions, but this is unavoidable."^[1]

Such evidence-based logical frameworks serve to motivate both experimental and further theoretical refinement, and the formulation of testable hypotheses. For example, the synchronization of senescence by natural selection, a concept central to the prevailing evolutionary view of senescence and initially advanced by George C. Williams in 1957^[2] and later extended and refined by John Maynard Smith^[3] has been described as a framework in agreement with Crick and Koch's definition^[4]^[5]. Their definition has been used explicitly in attempts to understand anorexia nervosa^[6] and to understand and formulate treatment options for obesity^[7].

The absence, paucity or dispensability of mathematics in important theoretical biological frameworks such as those cited above, and indeed in the foundational work of many evolutionary theorists including Charles Darwin, are existence proofs that theoretical biology is somewhat distinct from mathematical or computational biology. Nevertheless, the ultimate goal of the theoretical biologist is to explain the biological world using mainly mathematical and computational tools. Though it is ultimately based on observations and experimental results, the theoretical biologist's product is a model or theory, and it is this that chiefly distinguishes the theoretical biologist from other biologists.^{[citation needed]}

Many separate areas of biology fall under the concept of theoretical biology, according to the way they are studied. Some of these areas include: animal behaviour (ethology), biomechanics, biorhythms, cell biology, complexity of biological systems, ecology, enzyme kinetics, evolutionary biology, genetics, immunology, membrane transport, microbiology, molecular structures, morphogenesis, physiological mechanisms, systems biology and the origin of life. Neurobiology is an example of a subdiscipline of biology which already has a theoretical version of its own, theoretical or computational neuroscience.^{[citation needed]}

1 Theoretical biologists
2 See also
3 References
4 Bibliographical references
5 External links
- 5.1 Related Journals
- 5.2 Related societies

Theoretical biologists

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References

^ Crick F, Koch C (2003). "A framework for consciousness". Nature Neuroscience 6: 119-126. PMID 12555104.
^ Williams, G. C. (1957). "Pleiotropy, Natural Selection, and the Evolution of Senescence". Evolution 11: 398-411.
^ Maynard Smith J C. (1962). "The causes of ageing". Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 157: 115–127.
^ Estep, Preston (2007), "Chapter 3: The Promise of Human Life Span Extension", in Poon, Leonard; Perls, Thomas, Annual Review of Gerontology And Geriatrics: Biopsychosocial Approaches to Longevity, New York: Springer, pp. 60-127, ISBN 9780826115379
^ Estep, Preston (2009), "Chapter 2: The Evidence-based Pursuit of Radical Life Extension", in Maher, Derek; Mercer, Calvin, Religion and the Implications of Radical Life Extension, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 25-37, ISBN 9780230607941
^ Södersten, P., Bergh, C., & Zandian, M. C (2006). "Understanding eating disorders". Hormones and Behavior 50: 572–578. PMID 16890228.
^ Bergh C, Sabin S, Shield J, Hellers G, Zandian M, Palmberg K, Olofsson B, Lindeberg K, Björnström M and Södersten P. (2008), "13: A Framework for the Treatment of Obesity: Early Support", in Elliott M. Blass, Obesity: Causes, Mechanisms and Prevention, Sinauer Associates, Inc., pp. 572–578, ISBN 9780878930371

Bibliographical references

Bonner, J. T. 1988. The Evolution of Complexity by Means of Natural Selection. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Hertel, H. 1963. Structure, Form, Movement. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corp.
Mangel, M. 1990. Special Issue, Classics of Theoretical Biology (part 1). Bull. Math. Biol. 52(1/2): 1-318.
Mangel, M. 2006. The Theoretical Biologist's Toolbox. Quantitative Methods for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. Cambridge University Press.
Prusinkiewicz, P. & Lindenmeyer, A. 1990. The Algorithmic Beauty of Plants. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Reinke, J. 1901. Einleitung in die theoretische Biologie. Berlin: Verlag von Gebrüder Paetel.
Thompson, D.W. 1942. On Growth and Form. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 2. vols.
Uexküll, J.v. 1920. Theoretische Biologie. Berlin: Gebr. Paetel.
Vogel, S. 1988. Life's Devices: The Physical World of Animals and Plants. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Waddington, C.H. 1968-1972. Towards a Theoretical Biology. 4 vols. Edinburg: Edinburg University Press.

External links

Related Journals

Related societies

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Theoretical biology

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