As becomes apparent from the tables of contents printed above, vols. 5 and 6 

 of this well-estabhshed serial publication show the same many-sided approach 

 as their predecessors. It will not be necessary to review the individual con- 

 tributions, since the titles speak for themselves. 



Exception is made for the paper by Torrey in vol. 5, since this is ideally 

 suited to acquaint animal embryologists with important problems of early plant 

 morphogenesis. The review is thorough and well-organized. In a concluding 

 section entitled "The role of hormones in the initiation of organization" the 

 author points out the theoretical pitfalls of the interpretation of plant hormone 

 production and action as related to problems of gene activation in plant mor- 

 phogenesis. 



The reviewer would like to make a minor suggestion for improvement, viz. 

 that in the reference lists the full titles of the papers quoted should be given. 



22 CYBERNETICS AND DEVELOPMENT 



1966 

 by M. J. Apter Pergamon Press 



Intern. Ser. of Monographs Oxford 



in Pure and Appl. Biology, Price: 50 s. 



Zoology Division, Vol. 29 

 199 pp. 



This is a book many embryologists have been waiting for; it is the first 

 large-scale attempt to specifically apply the insights of cybernetics to the 

 problems of developmental biology. The author is an associate of Prof. F. H. 

 George, University of Bristol, and, among other things, has written a Ph. D. 

 thesis entitled "Growth and communication" (1964). He has also been asso- 

 ciated with Dr. L. Wolpert, Middlesex Hospital, London. 



The author emphasizes that cybernetics is more than simply a way of 

 drawing analogies between animals and machines, and that it is concerned 

 with the development of conceptual systems at a level of generality which 

 subsumes both animals and machines, and can be related to both by means 

 of models. 



The book is best characterized by a quotation from the "flap" of the dust 

 cover: 



"A description of the cybernetic approach is followed by a brief survey of 

 the problems involved in understanding biological development, and cyber- 

 netic research which has previously been carried out on development is 

 described, as is other relevant cybernetic research. Information theory is also 

 discussed in this context. A number of original cybernetic models of devel- 

 opment are then presented both in the form of computer programmes and 

 "paper-and-pencil" models. Included in the latter are models described in 

 terms of turing machine quadruples and models described using the termin- 

 ology introduced by Jacob and Monod. These models, in different ways, 

 demonstrate that machines can in principle develop autonomously, and that 

 therefore a cybernetics of development is a viable area of study. Throughout, 

 the holistic aspect of development is emphasized." 



The author states in his preface that enough background material is 

 provided to make the book understandable to the biologist with little knowledge 

 of cybernetics (and conversely). 



The book consists of eight chapters and four short appendixes; all of these 

 have their own list of references. The book contains no illustrations apart from 

 some formal schemes. It is concluded by a combined author and subject index. 



281 



