Cell Language Theory, The: Connecting Mind And Matter

Applications of the Cell Language Theory to Biomedical Sciences 303

“6x9” b2861 The Cell Language Theory: Connecting Mind and Matter

and the corresponding rates of gene expression (i.e., TR) along the

y-axis. For the human genome, the GEAS would look very much like

Figure 7.7, only with a larger set of lines, approximately 1,000 per chro-

mosome, with varying heights reflecting different rates of correspond-

ing transcription.

If the qualitative comparison given above turns out to be valid, cell

biologists might learn some useful lessons from the history of atomic

physics. For example, in 1885, Lyman and others discovered that the

absorption or the emission lines of the hydrogen atom obeyed a simple

formula

v = R(1/n 22 - 1/n 12 ), (7.10)

where v is the wavenumber of the light, R is the Rydberg constant

(109,677.581 cm-1), and n 2 and n 1 are positive integers associated with the

excited and the ground states, respectively, of the electron in the hydrogen

atom [73, 327] (see Figure 7.9). This formula remained a mystery until

1913, when Niels Bohr proposed a theoretical model of the hydrogen atom

based on the experimental data obtained by Rutherford and the theoretical

concept of the quantum of action invoked by M. Planck in 1900. Bohr’s

atomic model led to the correct interpretations of the meanings of n 2 and

n 1 in Eq. (7.10) and to the calculation of the Rydberg constant from fun-

damental constants of physics.

The atomic absorption spectroscopy discussed above suggests an

interesting analogy:

“cDNA array technology may be to the cell biology of the 21st century

what the line spectroscopy was to the atomic physics of the 20th

century.” (7.11)

This and other related comparisons are summarized in Table 7.1. This

table is not meant to be exhaustively complete but lists only those items

related to the theoretical cell biological research that the author has carried

out during the past four decades and thus does not include many important

contributions made by other researchers, for example, the work of Craig

Benham on SIDDs (stress-induced duplex destabilizations) which are

directly related to the concept of conformons [79, 80, 226].

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