Epilogue — A Perspective 



It is useful to have a perspective of a subject such as biophysics. In the 

 Introduction we located the subject nestled in among other pure and bio 

 sciences. However, the questions raised about information and control in 

 the last chapter — about man's brain and the computers which he is fashion- 

 ing — make us wonder where biophysics fits in among those disciplines 

 which are not physical sciences. In other words, Where does the biophysics 

 of man fit into the framework of all knowledge about man? 



F. O. Schmitt has introduced the thought very nicely:* 



"Biophysics, like biochemistry, has to reckon with hierarchies of organiza- 

 tion and with the properties that are characteristic of systems no less com- 

 plex than those provided by living organisms at each particular level of 

 organizational complexity: viz., molecular, macromolecular, subcellular, 

 cellular, supercellular, organismic, and superorganismic . . . theoretical 

 biology must deal not only with the properties of cellular constituents but 

 also with the properties of the organism as a whole." 



Interpreting man as an organism, complete with his esthetic, emotional, 

 and religious experiences, and as part of a superorganism complete with 

 social, cultural, and religious activities, we can view man's knowledge of him- 

 self, his history, and his destiny, in a very broad and intriguing perspective. 

 However, within the framework of the logical disciplines as they now exist, 

 we know: that logic and experiment are the tools of the scientist; that logical 

 ^//-consistency is the final test for philosophers and mathematicians; and 

 that the theologion has logic, the results of natural science, and revelation in 

 his workshop. 



Man's intellectual destiny is to know the truth — about the Creator, about 

 Man, and about Nature — even though "man's body is but a fleeting 

 thing."** He has the right to know, the ability to find out, and the responsi- 

 bility to try. Ultimately there is no substitute for the truth in any intellectual 

 disciplines. 



Classification of inputs into "information" and "noise" (in the sense in 

 which these terms are used in the last chapter) is man's greatest obstacle to 

 knowing all about man, for such classification is highly subjective. 



'Biophysical Science — A Study Program," J. L. Oncley, el ai, Eds., John Wiley & Sons, 

 Inc., New York, N.Y., 1959, pp. 5 and 6. 



**Ecclesiasticus, 41, 11. 



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