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Theoretical biology is a field of academic study and research that involves the use of models and theories in biology.
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]
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]
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Theoretical biologists
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- Ervin Bauer
- Ludwig von Bertalanffy
- Francis Crick
- Richard Dawkins
- Walter M. Elsasser
- Claus Emmeche
- Ronald A. Fisher
- Brian Goodwin
- J. B. S. Haldane
- William D. Hamilton
- Lionel G. Harrison
- Michael Hassell
- Sven Erik Jørgensen
- George Karreman
- Stuart Kauffman
- Kalevi Kull
- Simon Levin
- Richard Lewontin
- Humberto Maturana
- Robert May
- John Maynard Smith
- Gerd B. Müller
- George R. Price
- Erik Rauch
- Nicolas Rashevsky
- Ronald Brown (mathematician)
- Johannes Reinke
- Robert Rosen
- Peter Schuster
- George Sugihara
- Rene Thom
- D'Arcy Thompson
- Robert Trivers
- Jakob von Uexküll
- Robert Ulanowicz
- Francisco Varela
- C. H. Waddington
- E. O. Wilson
- Arthur Winfree
- Lewis Wolpert
- Sewall Wright
See also
- Journal of Theoretical Biology
- Bioinformatics
- Biosemiotics
- Mathematical biology
- Theoretical ecology
- Artificial life
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
- Theory of Biological Anthropology (Documents No. 9 and 10 in English)
- Drawing the Line Between Theoretical and Basic Biology (a forum article by Isidro T. Savillo)
Related Journals
- Acta Biotheoretica
- Bioinformatics
- Biological Theory
- BioSystems
- Bulletin of Mathematical Biology
- Ecological Modelling
- Journal of Mathematical Biology
- Journal of Theoretical Biology
- Journal of the Royal Society Interface
- Mathematical Biosciences
- Medical Hypotheses
- Rivista di Biologia-Biology Forum
- Theoretical and Applied Genetics
- Theoretical Biology and Medical Modelling
- Theoretical Population Biology
- Theory in Biosciences (formerly: Biologisches Zentralblatt)
Related societies
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