title: The mathematical transformation of growth and form--I:Transferring the wave - particle duality from physics to biology and proposing wave interaction as a key determinant of biological structure.
abstract: Just as the material units of existence, atoms and basic particles, can be viewed as waves or particles, depending on the observational frame chosen by the physicist, so also can biochemical macro-molecules, the units of biological existence, be viewed as waves or particles by the biologist. It is proposed that the flux of different waveforms which floods biological systems provides an interference pattern, whose energetic distribution forms a scaffold for the construction of biological forms. In this way the biological whole becomes the Fourier transform of the parts and histological pattern becomes the determinant of macroscopic form. Evidence is adduced suggesting that biological forms follow the energy patterns laid down by the environment. It is proposed that the ability of bipolymers to re-radiate  coherent waveforms derived from the environment, has given evolved systems the autonomy which has allowed a free and prolific evolution. This coherent illumination can be analysed by Fourier methods and this shows that the results are peculiarly appropriate for biological systems. The Gaussian waveform is all-important and may explain the influence of homogeneous and heterogeneous DNA in cell surface kinetics, hybridisation and carcinogenesis.
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D055592:Biophysical Phenomena; D001703:Biophysics; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields; D004734:Energy Metabolism; D004777:Environment; D005583:Fourier Analysis; D006128:Growth; D006801:Humans; D046911:Macromolecular Substances; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013057:Spectrum Analysis
chemical_list: D046911:Macromolecular Substances