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Biocommunication of Plants (edited book)Springer. 2012.Plants are sessile, highly sensitive organisms that actively compete for environmental resources both above and below the ground. They assess their surroundings, estimate how much energy they need for particular goals, and then realise the optimum variant. They take measures to control certain environmental resources. They perceive themselves and can distinguish between ‘self’ and ‘non-self’. They process and evaluate information and then modify their behaviour accordingly. These highly diverse …Read more
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402Evolution of Genetic Information without Error ReplicationIn Theoretical Information Studies, . pp. 295-319. 2020.Darwinian evolutionary theory has two key terms, variations and biological selection, which finally lead to survival of the fittest variant. With the rise of molecular genetics, variations were explained as results of error replications out of the genetic master templates. For more than half a century, it has been accepted that new genetic information is mostly derived from random error-based events. But the error replication narrative has problems explaining the sudden emergence of new species,…Read more
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98Memory and Learning as Key Competences of Living OrganismsIn Baluska Frantisek, Gagliano Monica & Guenther Witzany (eds.), Memory and Learning in Plants, Springer. pp. 1-16. 2018.Organisms that share the capability of storing information about experiences in the past have an actively generated background resource on which they can compare and evaluate more recent experiences in order to quickly or even better react than in previous situations. This is an essential competence for all reaction and adaptation purposes of living organisms. Such memory/learning skills can be found from akaryotes up to unicellular eukaryotes, fungi, animals and plants, although until recently,…Read more
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75Memory and Learning in Plants (edited book)Springer. 2018.This book assembles recent research on memory and learning in plants. Organisms that share a capability to store information about experiences in the past have an actively generated background resource on which they can compare and evaluate coming experiences in order to react faster or even better. This is an essential tool for all adaptation purposes. Such memory/learning skills can be found from bacteria up to fungi, animals and plants, although until recently it had been mentioned only as ca…Read more
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118Quasispecies ProductivityThe Science of Nature (Naturwissenschaften) 111 11. 2024.Abstract The quasispecies theory is a helpful concept in the explanation of RNA virus evolution and behaviour, with a relevant impact on methods used to fight viral diseases. It has undergone some adaptations to integrate new empirical data, especially the non-deterministic nature of mutagenesis, and the variety of behavioural motifs in cooperation, competition, communication, innovation, integration, and exaptation. Also, the consortial structure of quasispecies with complementary roles of memo…Read more
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22Biocommunication of PhagesSpringer. 2020.This is the first book to systemize all levels of communicative behavior of phages. Phages represent the most diverse inhabitants on this planet. Until today they are completely underestimated in their number, skills and competences and still remain the dark matter of biology. Phages have serious effects on global energy and nutrient cycles. Phages actively compete for host. They can distinguish between ‘self’ and ‘non-self’. They process and evaluate available information and then modify their …Read more
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6Biocommunication of Fungi (edited book)Springer. 2012.Fungi are sessile, highly sensitive organisms that actively compete for environmental resources both above and below the ground. They assess their surroundings, estimate how much energy they need for particular goals, and then realise the optimum variant. They take measures to control certain environmental resources. They perceive themselves and can distinguish between ‘self’ and ‘non-self’. They process and evaluate information and then modify their behaviour accordingly. These highly diverse c…Read more
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11Biocommunication of Ciliates (edited book)Springer. 2016.This is the first coherent description of all levels of communication of ciliates. Ciliates are highly sensitive organisms that actively compete for environmental resources. They assess their surroundings, estimate how much energy they need for particular goals, and then realise the optimum variant. They take measures to control certain environmental resources. They perceive themselves and can distinguish between ‘self’ and ‘non-self’. They process and evaluate information and then modify their …Read more
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9Biocommunication of Archaea (edited book)Springer. 2017.Archaea represent a third domain of life with unique properties not found in the other domains. Archaea actively compete for environmental resources. They perceive themselves and can distinguish between 'self' and 'non-self'. They process and evaluate available information and then modify their behaviour accordingly. They assess their surroundings, estimate how much energy they need for particular goals, and then realize the optimum variant. These highly diverse competences show us that this is …Read more
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165Self-empowerment of life through RNA networks, cells and viruses (review)F1000Research 12 (138): 1-27. 2023.Our understanding of the key players in evolution and of the development of all organisms in all domains of life has been aided by current knowledge about RNA stem-loop groups, their proposed interaction motifs in an early RNA world and their regulative roles in all steps and substeps of nearly all cellular processes, such as replication, transcription, translation, repair, immunity and epigenetic marking. Cooperative evolution was enabled by promiscuous interactions between single-stranded reg…Read more
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137Self-empowerment of life through RNA networks, cells and virusesF1000 Research 12 (138). 2023.Our understanding of the key players in evolution and of the development of all organisms in all domains of life has been aided by current knowledge about RNA stem-loop groups, their proposed interaction motifs in an early RNA world and their regulative roles in all steps and substeps of nearly all cellular processes, such as replication, transcription, translation, repair, immunity and epigenetic marking. Cooperative evolution was enabled by promiscuous interactions between single-stranded regi…Read more
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67Explaining and Understanding Life (review)Semiotica - Journal of the International Association for Semiotic Studies / Revue de l'Association Internationale de Sémiotique 120 (3/4): 421-438. 1998.
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281How Viruses Made Us Humans (review)In Nathalie Gontier, Andy Lock & Chris Sinha (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution, Oup. pp. 1-20. 2024.Current research on the origin of DNA and RNA, viruses, and mobile genetic elements prompts a re-evaluation of the origin and nature of genetic material as the driving force behind evolutionary novelty. While scholars used to think that novel features resulted from random genetic mutations of an individual’s specific genome, today we recognize the important role that acquired viruses and mobile genetic elements have played in introducing evolutionary novelty within the genomes of species. Viral …Read more
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274To the End of Dogmatism in Molecular BiologyBiosemiotics 14 (1): 67-72. 2021.Denis Nobel looks at four important misinterpretations of molecular biology concerning evolutionary processes and demonstrates that the new synthesis today looks rather outdated. The modern synthesis is nearly 80 years old. The proponents who worked out the modern synthesis had no access to the current knowledge on cell biology, genetics, epigenetics, RNA biology and virology. Therefore this contribution adds several aspects which Nobel’s article does not explicitly mention, providing some examp…Read more
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230The Secrets of Life - The Vital Roles of RNA Networks and VirusesIn Nancy Dess (ed.), A Multidisciplinary Aproach to Embodiment - Understanding Human Being, Routledge. pp. 20-26. 2020.Viruses and related infectious genetic parasites are the most abundant biological agents on this planet. They invade all cellular organisms, are key agents in the generation of adaptive and innate immune systems, and drive nearly all regulatory processes within living cells.
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1606What is Life?Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences 7 1-13. 2020.In searching for life in extraterrestrial space, it is essential to act based on an unequivocal definition of life. In the twentieth century, life was defined as cells that self-replicate, metabolize, and are open for mutations, without which genetic information would remain unchangeable, and evolution would be impossible. Current definitions of life derive from statistical mechanics, physics, and chemistry of the twentieth century in which life is considered to function machine like, ignoring …Read more
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167Zeichenprozesse als Bedingung der Möglichkeit von Evolution. Zur Notwendigkeit einer MolekularpragmatikZeitschrift Für Semiotik 2 (15): 107-125. 1993.
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168Sprache und Kommunikation als zentrale Struktur- und Organisationsprinzipien belebter NaturIn Ludger Albers & Ottmar Leiß (eds.), Körper - Sprache - Weltbild: Integration Biologischer Und Kultureller Interpretationen in der Medizin ; Mit 36 Tabellen, Schattauer. pp. 87-96. 2002.
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282From the "'logic of Molecular Syntax' to Molecular Pragmatism. Explanatory deficits in Manfred Eigen's concept of language and communication.Evolution and Cognition 2 (1): 148-168. 1995.Manfred Eigen employs the terms language and communication to explain key recombination processes of DNA as well as to explain the self-organization of human language and communication: Life processes as well as language and communication processes are governed by the logic of a molecular syntax, which is the exact depiction of a principally formalizable reality. The author of the present contribution demonstrates that this view of Manfred Eigen’s cannot be sufficiently substantiated and that it…Read more
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1393That is life: communicating RNA networks from viruses and cells in continuous interactionAnnals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1-16. 2019.All the conserved detailed results of evolution stored in DNA must be read, transcribed, and translated via an RNAmediated process. This is required for the development and growth of each individual cell. Thus, all known living organisms fundamentally depend on these RNA-mediated processes. In most cases, they are interconnected with other RNAs and their associated protein complexes and function in a strictly coordinated hierarchy of temporal and spatial steps (i.e., an RNA network). Clearly, al…Read more
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596Communication as the Main Characteristic of LifeIn Vera M. Kolb (ed.), Handbook of Astrobiology, Crc Press. pp. 91-105. 2019.
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79The Viral Origins of Telomeres and Telomerases and their Important Role in Eukaryogenesis and Genome MaintenanceBiosemiotics 1 (2): 191-206. 2008.Whereas telomeres protect terminal ends of linear chromosomes, telomerases identify natural chromosome ends, which differ from broken DNA and replicate telomeres. Although telomeres play a crucial role in the linear chromosome organization of eukaryotic cells, their molecular syntax most probably descended from an ancient retroviral competence. This indicates an early retroviral colonization of large double-stranded DNA viruses, which are putative ancestors of the eukaryotic nucleus. This contri…Read more
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550Key Levels of BiocommunicationIn Richard Gordon & Joseph Seckbach (eds.), Biocommunication: Sign-mediated interactions between cells and organisms, World Scientific. pp. 37-61. 2016.Organisms actively compete for environmental resources. They assess their surroundings, estimate how much energy they need for particular goals, and then realize the optimum variant. They take measures to control certain environmental resources. They perceive themselves and can distinguish between “self” and “non-self.” Current empirical data on all domains of life indicate that unicellular organisms such as bacteria, archaea, giant viruses, and protozoa as well as multicellular organisms such a…Read more
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842Artificial and Natural Genetic Information ProcessingIn Mark Burgin & Wolfgang Hofkirchner (eds.), Information Studies and the Quest for Transdisciplinarity, World Scientific. pp. 523-547. 2017.Conventional methods of genetic engineering and more recent genome editing techniques focus on identifying genetic target sequences for manipulation. This is a result of historical concept of the gene which was also the main assumption of the ENCODE project designed to identify all functional elements in the human genome sequence. However, the theoretical core concept changed dramatically. The old concept of genetic sequences which can be assembled and manipulated like molecular bricks has probl…Read more
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454Two genetic codes: Repetitive syntax for active non-coding RNAs; non-repetitive syntax for the DNA archivesCommunicative and Integrative Biology 10 (2). 2017.Current knowledge of the RNA world indicates 2 different genetic codes being present throughout the living world. In contrast to non-coding RNAs that are built of repetitive nucleotide syntax, the sequences that serve as templates for proteins share—as main characteristics—a non-repetitive syntax. Whereas non-coding RNAs build groups that serve as regulatory tools in nearly all genetic processes, the coding sections represent the evolutionarily successful function of the genetic information stor…Read more
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Noncoding RNAs: Persistent Viral Agents as Modular Tools for Cellular NeedsAnnals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1178 244-267. 2009.It appears that all the detailed steps of evolution stored in DNA that are read, transcribed, and translated in every developmental and growth process of each individual cell depend on RNA-mediated processes, in most cases interconnected with other RNAs and their associated protein complexes and functions in a strict hierarchy of temporal and spatial steps. Life could not function without the key agents of DNA replication, namely mRNA, tRNA, and rRNA. Not only rRNA, but also tRNA and the process…Read more
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8Key Levels of Biocommunication in PlantsIn Guenther Witzany & František Baluška (eds.), Biocommunication of Plants, Springer. pp. 1--9. 2012.
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8Biocommunication of Animals (edited book)Springer. 2014.Every coordination within or between animals depends on communication processes. Although the signaling molecules, vocal and tactile signs, gestures and its combinations differ throughout all species according their evolutionary origins and variety of adaptation processes, certain levels of biocommunication can be found in all animal species: Abiotic environmental indices such as temperature, light, water, etc. that affect the local ecosphere of an organism and are sensed, interpreted. Trans-spe…Read more
Guenther Witzany
Telos - Philosophische Praxis
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Telos - Philosophische PraxisAdministrator
Ludwig Maximilians Universität, München
Faculty of Philosophy, Philosophy of Science and Study of Religion
PhD, 1983
Areas of Specialization
Philosophy of Language |
Philosophy of Biology |
Areas of Interest
Philosophy of Language |
Philosophy of Biology |
General Philosophy of Science |