THEORETICAL AND MATHEMATICAL DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY (see also 98) 



Monographs 



10. 



G.T.HERMAN and G. ROZENBERG. 1975. DEVELOPMENTAL SYSTEMS AND 



LANGUAGES 



North-Holland, Amsterdam, etc.; American Elsevier, New York. XVI, 363 pp., 34 figs., 

 5 pis., 9 tabs., author and subject indexes. Dfl. 75.00, $ 31.25 



This book was written for both biologists and language theorists and its main body 

 (part I: Languages and part II: Sequences) is difficult to read for biologists lacking a 

 background in formal language theory. The biologist will be interested most in ch.O 

 (Developmental systems and languages in their biological context, contributed by Linden- 

 mayer) and in part III (consisting of chapters on the firing squad synchronisation 

 problem, on polarity and the French Flag problem, and on the simulation of pigmenta- 

 tion patterns on snail shells and of heterocyst formation in blue-green algae). 



Lindenmayer states in his introductory chapter that the main strength of the theory 

 expounded in the book at present hes in the area of interactionless developmental 

 systems (OL or zero Lindenmayer systems — a Lindenmayer system being a growing 

 cellular array of finite automata). The mathematics of interactive systems is not as far 

 advanced yet, although there are promising results. 



In contrasting the discrete, combinatorial methods of the present study with continu- 

 ous mathematical models Lindenmayer stresses that the former "are far more advantage- 

 ous in cases where many different cytological and biochemical processes combine in 

 determining development". 



II. 



R. THOM. 1975. STRUCTURAL STABILITY AND MORPHOGENESIS, an outline of a 



general theory of models, translated from the French edition, as updated by the author, 



by D. H. Fowler 



Benjamin, Reading., Mass. XVIII, 348 pp., 168 figs., subject index. $22.50, £7.45 



(paper), £ 12.40 (cloth) 



This book first appeared in French in 1972 and was reviewed in Gen. Embryol. Inf. 

 Serv. 15, part I, 1973. We refer the reader to that review and only say here that several 

 critics have hailed the book as a highly original and stimulating, though speculative 

 contribution to the methodology of thought. 



C. H. Waddington has provided a special foreword to the English edition which goes 

 some way in telling the reader what he may expect. He emphasizes that the book is "a 

 part of mathematics, not in a direct way a part of biology". He also points out that 

 Thom's approach deals particularly with the boundaries of things, and thus with discon- 

 tinuities (catastrophes), whereas the mathematics used in almost all science so far 

 presupposes continuity. 



The translation was made in close cooperation with the author. Although the present 

 reviewer cannot judge the more technical parts, it certainly reads very well. All figures 

 have been redrawn for this edition. (In the caption of special illustration 1 1 the name of 

 the second author is badly mangled.) 



Symposium reports 



12. 



J. D. COWAN, ed. 1974. SOME MATHEMATICAL QUESTIONS IN BIOLOGY. V 



Amer. Mathematical Society, Providence. Lectures on Mathematics in the Life Sciences, 

 vol. 6. VI, 141 pp., 35 figs., 2 tabs., author and subject indexes. 



This symposium was held in 1973 and part of the work reported is therefore probably 

 already published more extensively elsewhere. Three out of the six papers in this 



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