Cell Language Theory, The: Connecting Mind And Matter

32 The Cell Language Theory: Connecting Mind and Matter

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

tubes such as the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction [58, 59], there were no

direct experimental evidence to support the concept of the IDSs when the

Bhopalator was proposed at the International Seminar on the Living State

held in Bhopal, India, on November 13−19, 1983. As indicated already,

the direct experimental evidence for IDSs was reported by Sawyer et al.

in 1985 [60].

The experimental evidence for the conformon in DNA was provided

by the ATP­driven formation of DNA supercoils whose stored mechanical

energy is known to be essential for driving gene expression [79–81].

Another more direct experimental evidence for the existence of the con­

formon was reported by several Japanese single­molecule enzymologists

[82–84] who provided evidence that can be interpreted as supporting the

hypothesis that the free energy of ATP hydrolysis is stored in the myosin

head before it exerts a force on the actin filament (see the myosin head

marked with a superscript star in [25, Figure 11.33(d), p. 374], reproduced

as Figure 3.48(d). Another direct evidence for the concept of conformons

and conformational waves was reported by Noji and coworkers [85] who

used the high­speed atomic force microscopy to capture the rotary propa­

gation of the conformational waves of the β subunits in the α 3 β 3 hexamer

of the F 1 F 0 ­ATP synthase (see Figure 3.12(g)).

To account for the robustness of the dynamic processes in the living

cell, it was proposed that there exists a force, the cell force, that acts inside

the cell to “hold together” the various metabolic processes in functional

relations against thermal disturbances, just as the strong force “holds

together” the nucleons (protons and neutrons) in atomic nuclei despite the

electrostatic repulsions among protons [7, pp. 90–119].

There is abundant experimental evidence indicating that living cells

are engaged in communication both within individual cells and between

different cells [86]. Since it is axiomatic that no communication is possi­

ble without a language (see Section 4.1), it would follow that there must

exist cell language. Cell language was defined in molecular terms and was

compared with human language, leading to the finding that, out of the

13 design features of human language, 10 have molecular counterparts in

cell language [19, 21].

These theoretical ideas that were developed over a period of four dec­

ades lead me to suggest that we now have an inchoate molecular theory of

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