Biology Beyond Genes
Denis Noble
Instructor
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Denis NobleOxford Professor and one of the pioneers of Systems Biology
Categories
About the Course
Richard Dawkins popularised the view that organisms are merely vehicles built by ‘selfish genes’ for their own survival and reproduction. But the genome is inert: it does nothing without the directing activity of the organism. Is the organism using the genes, or are the genes creating the organism?
In this highly personal talk, Denis Noble takes us on a journey from tropical islands to imagined aliens on Jupiter, to show us that we need to shake off simple reductionism and realise, instead, that life is the outcome of complex, interactive processes. Rather than drivers of biological systems, genes emerge as organs of the cell, whose influence is shaped by context and culture.
By the end of this course, you will have learned:
- Why looking for the secrets of life purely in the genome is misguided
- Why genes are best understood as templates rather than programmes
- How Lamarck was right
- How life emerges from interactions at multiple levels
- Why the ‘self’ is best understood as a process, not an object in the brain
About the Instructor
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Denis Noble
"My mission at the moment Is to shake the foundations. No less than that"
One of the founders of the field of systems biology, Denis Noble is an Emeritus professor of cardiovascular physiology at the University of Oxford. He was the first to develop computer models of the heart in 1960. His books include the first popular science book on the subject, The Music of Life (OUP, 2006), which has been translated into 12 languages. Central to Noble's work is that living organisms are "more like a piece of music than a genetically determined machine", a challenging metaphor in the field for the field of biology.
Amongst many awards and honours, he became a founding Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences and was awarded a CBE in 1998. In 2022, he was elected a Fellow of The Linnean Society.
"A pioneer" - The Guardian
"Certainly has a rebellious streak" - The Oxford Scientist
Course Syllabus
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Part One: The Trouble with GenesNoble explores how the music of life is not directed by genes, but in a sense, plays itself
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Part Two: Beyond the GenomeNoble investigates how life is generated and explores the nature of the self.
Suggested Further Readings
Nobe, D. (2006) The Music of Life, Oxford University Press
