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281The Physical Foundations of Biology and the Problem of PsychophysicsRatio (Misc.) 12 47-64. 1970.Full applicability of physics to human biology does not necessarily imply that one can uncover a comprehensive, algorithmic correlation between physical brain states and corresponding mental states. The argument takes into account that information processing is finite in principle in a finite world. Presumbly the brain-mind-relation cannot be resolved in all essential aspects, particularly when high degrees of abstraction or self-analytical processes are involved. Our conjecture plausibly unifie…Read more
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249Innovationstheorie und die Evolution menschlicher Fähigkeiten: Beispiel EmpathieNova Acta Leopoldina 77 (304): 85-98. 1998.A summarizing English version on “Theory of Innovation and the Evolution of General Human Capabilities, such as Cognition-based Empathy” is included in the download. Den biologisch modernen Menschentyp charakterisieren sehr allgemeine Fähigkeiten, wie begriffliche Sprache, strategisches Denken und kognitionsgestützte Empathie. Neurobiologisch kann Empathiefähigkeit als eine Verbindung von Repräsentationen von Mitmenschen mit dem je eigenen Gefühlszentren im Gehirn angesehen werden. In Grundzüg…Read more
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243On Modern Science, Human Cognition, and Cultural DiversityIn Preprint series Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Mpi History of Science. 2009.The development of modern science has depended strongly on specific features of the cultures involved; however, its results are widely and trans-culturally accepted and applied. The science and technology of electricity provides a particularly interesting example. It emerged as a specific product of post-Renaissance Europe, rooted in the Greek philosophical tradition that encourages explanations of nature in theoretical terms. It did not evolve in China presumably because such encouragement was …Read more
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209Molekulare Theorie der Mikroreibung - Molecular theory of microfrictionZeitschrift Für Naturforschung Section A 8 532-538. 1953.The layers of a solvent liquid flowing around a moving molecule have a finite thickness corresponding to the finite dimensions of the solvent molecules. Taking this feature into account leads to a modification of Stokes’ laws of the relation between friction and viscosity in continuous media. We derive the observed order of magnitude of the microfriction, for rotation as well as translation, and its approximately correct dependence on the radii of moving and solvent molecules.
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176Was ist der Mensch?In D. Ganten, V. Gerhardt, J. Nida-Rümelin & J. C. Heilinger (eds.), Was ist der Mensch? Humanprojekt der BBAW, De Gruyter. pp. 103-105. 2008.Der Text ist eines von achtzig Kurzessays zum Thema „Was ist der Mensch“, zu denen unsere Arbeitsgruppe „Humanprojekt“ der Berlin-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften eingeladen hat. So genau Aussagen inhaltlicher Naturwissenschaft oft sind, auf der metatheoretischen Ebene bleibt die Gesamtheit unseres Wissens, und damit auch die Stellung des Menschen in der Natur deutungsfähig und deutungsbedürftig; sie ist mit verschiedenen, natürlich nicht mit allen, philosophischen, kulturellen und…Read more
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69Pattern formation by local self‐activation and lateral inhibitionBioessays 22 (8): 753-760. 2000.In 1972, we proposed a theory of biological pattern formation in which concentration maxima of pattern forming substances are generated through local self- enhancement in conjunction with long range inhibition. Since then, much evidence in various developmental systems has confirmed the importance of autocatalytic feedback loops combined with inhibitory interaction. Examples are found in the formation of embryonal organizing regions, in segmentation, in the …Read more
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30Organisms-Mechanisms: Stahl, Wolff, and the Case against Reductionist ExclusionScience in Context 9 (4): 511-528. 1996.Unlike Aristotelian physics with its teleological notions, modern physics was developed exclusively in relation to the nonliving domain. This raised the question as to whether mechanics applies to organisms, and if so, to what extent. From the seventeenth century on, mechanistic ideas became prominent in biological and medical theory. Contemporary biology explains essential features of life on the basis of physical laws and processes. This does not prove, however, that the early mechanists were …Read more
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15Georg Ernst Stahl in wissenschaftlicher SichtNTM Zeitschrift für Geschichte der Wissenschaften, Technik und Medizin 7 (1): 248-248. 1999.
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7Cusanus - Philosophie im Vorfeld moderner NaturwissenschaftKönigshausen&Neumann. 2002.Nikolaus von Kues ist eine der faszinierendsten Persönlichkeiten im Übergang vom Mittelalter zur Neuzeit. Während seine theologischen und neuplatonischen Vorstellungen viel beachtet werden, gilt das weniger für seine naturphilosophischen Ideen: Wie Gott die Welt in Wirklichkeit, so schafft der Mensch sie in Gedanken. Beobachtung, Experiment und Mathematik sind zum Verständnis der Natur notwendig. Die biblische Überlieferung ist nicht wörtlich zu nehmen. Er propagierte ein fast unendliches Univer…Read more
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6Bewusstsein – Reichweite und Grenzen naturwissenschaftlicher ErklärungIn Detlev Ganten, Volker Gerhardt & Julian Nida-Rümelin (eds.), Funktionen des Bewusstseins, Walter De Gruyter. pp. 267-282. 2008.
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1Physics, Life and Mind: The scope and limitations of scienceIn Iain Paul Jan Fennema (ed.), Second European Conference on Science and Religion, Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 61-71. 1988.What, precisely, are the ‘changing perspectives on reality’ in contemporary scientific thought? The topics of the lecture are the scope and the limits of science with emphasis on the physical foundations of biology. The laws of physics in general and the physics of molecules in particular form the basis for explaining the mechanism of reproduction, the generation of structure and form in the course of the development of the individual organism, the evolution of the diversity and complexity of or…Read more
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Hydra as a Model for the Development of Biological FormScientific American 231 (6): 44-54. 1974.Cells isolated from this freshwater polyp can aggregate and form a complete new animal. Experiments with the system lend support to a physico-chemical scheme for the creation of biological pattern.
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Preprint series, Max-Planck_Institute for the history of science (edited book)MPI for the History of Science. 2012.
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Zufall und naturgesetzliche NotwendigkeitIn O. Marquard G. V. Graevenitz (ed.), Kontingenz, Poetik und Hermeneutik XVII, Wilhelm Fink Verlag. pp. 123-139. 1998.Die Reflexion der Grundlagen der Wissenschaft mit ihren eigenen Mitteln, wie die gedankliche Vermessung des Messprozesses, die in die Begründung der Quantenphysik eingeht, und die logische Analyse der Logik im Rahmen der mathematischen Entscheidungstheorie zeigt schließlich prinzipielle Grenzen des möglichen Wissens auf. Eine Theorie des Leib-Seele-Zusammenhangs läuft auf das Bewusstsein von Bewusstsein hinaus und ist damit von dem gleichen Typ des Selbstbezugs, der auf prinzipielle Grenzen der …Read more
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Stahl, Georg Ernst (1659 - 1734), German physician and chemistIn Alan Charles Kors (ed.), Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment, Oxford University Press. 2003.
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Georg Ernst Stahl (1659-1734) in wissenschaftshistorischer Sicht (edited book)Acta Historica Leopoldina 30. 2000.Georg Ernst Stahl (1659-1734) was a German physician and chemist. The book (in German) documents a symposium of the Academy Leopoldina on his works and thoughts that contributed to the Enlightenment. Der weite Horizont seines Denkens und seiner Arbeiten umfasst die Phlogiston-Theorie der Verbrennung, die später mit der Entdeckung des Sauerstoffs widerlegt wurde, aber dennoch wichtige Erkenntnisse zur Reversibilität von Reaktionen und zur unsichtbaren Persistenz der beteiligten chemischen Kompo…Read more
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Sonnenenergiede Gruyter. 1991.The book (in German) on “Solar Energy – challenge for research, development and international co-operation” is the report of a study group of the Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin. It reviews solar thermal, photovoltaic, and bio mimetic solar energy techniques; prospects of de-central techniques in developing countries; transport and storage of solar energy; and chances for cooperation with Arabic countries and countries of the South of the former Soviet Union. The prospect of large scale e…Read more
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Preprint series Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (edited book)mpi history of science. 2009.
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Possible involvement of gradients in guidance of receptor cell axons towards their target position on the olfactory bulbEuropean Journal of Neuroscience 10 388-391. 1998.There is increasing evidence for directional guidance of growing axons by molecular gradients in target tissues. Aside from biochemical studies on gradients and their role, the capability of axons to approach their target position from different aspects of a two-dimensional field is itself an indication for guidance by gradients. According to this criterion, such guidance is expected to be involved not only in map-formation in the visual system but also in targeting of receptor cell axons in the…Read more
Alfred Gierer
Max-Planck-Institute of Developmental Biology, Tuebingen, Germany
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Max-Planck-Institute of Developmental Biology, Tuebingen, GermanyRetired faculty
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Religion |
Philosophy of Biology |
Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy |