
NEW:
Podcast on
BigBiology
The monkey on the typewriter -- click below

Video Lectures/debates: click on images below
The Emperor's
New Genes

Was the Watchmaker completely blind?

Book Launch at The Physiological Society in London November 2016

Reactions to launch lecture
"Naturally magisterial delivery"
"Absolutely superb"
"What a joy it was"
"the lions met a brick wall"

Podcasts on THETHINEND
New Trends in
Evolutionary Biology
Evolution and the one-eyed watchmaker
Podcast on
BigBiology
Video review on youtube

"Wonderful, wonderful, clearly summarized, clearly
well-thought-through & substantiated"
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Accolade for best review of 2019
goes to Jake Keenan on Amazon.com:
This is a great book that I am surprised is not more
widely known. Noble demolishes the Neo-Darwinist
version of evolution and outlines a systems version
of Darwinism. He knows his subject; he writes
clearly and accessibly; he puts his insights in the
larger contexts from history, various research
traditions, philosophy, and even theology; and he
makes the case that evolutionary theory is seriously
incomplete. This book will surely be a milestone as
the movement to clarify evolutionary principles
gains strength.
Jake Keenan
...it's great that a person of Noble's stature has taken the
time to write such a careful book... Biological Relativity
has the potential for bringing new insights into economics,
sociology and many other disciplines (link
to complete Amazon.com review)
A revolution in understanding how evolution works.
This exciting new book is a magisterial overview of the latest
developments in understanding evolution.
(link to complete Amazon.co.uk review)
Links for
purchase:
CUP (UK)
Amazon UK
CUP (USA)
Amazon USA
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Advance Reviews
'Among its many merits, this remarkable book deserves to
become a classic text in the philosophy of science.
Almost alone among philosophers of science, Noble is a
practising scientist; and unusually among practising
scientists, he is an accomplished philosopher. His book
brings out, with unparalleled clarity, how the
scientific endeavour involves not only empirical inquiry
but also conceptual structure. Noble shows how, on the
negative side, popular presentations of sound biological
results may be vitiated by bad metaphysics, and how, on
the positive side, science and philosophy may extend the
boundaries of knowledge by a unified epistemology. He
ends, however, with a salutary warning that there may
well be a limit to the human capacity to know the
answers to ultimate questions.' Sir Anthony
Kenny, University of Oxford
'I think this a
marvellous book. Denis Noble emphasises that genes,
organs and systems dance to the tune of the organism its
social and physical environment. He sets the relativity
of biology in a remarkable scientific sweep, ranging
from cosmology to human belief systems. He reminds me of
another great biologist, C.H. Waddington, to whom Noble
pays handsome tribute. Writing with clarity and charm,
Noble attempts to break down silos of knowledge
inhabited by scientists who fail to come out and engage
with others. Self-serving priesthoods have never been
attractive. Broadening minds in an era of intense
specialisation is more important than ever. Noble
deserves to be successful in his desire to do just that
and I hope that he will be.' Sir Patrick
Bateson, University of Cambridge
'In my view
Dance to The Tune of Life is a 'must read'. In it
Denis Noble lucidly deconstructs how and why
reductionism came to prominence in biology and led to
the current state of molecular Humpty-Dumptyism. His
central idea that there is no privileged level of
causation is the first conceptual step to putting Humpty
Dumpty back together again.' Michael J.
Joyner, Mayo Clinic, Minnesota
'Denis Noble is
renowned for his mission to reintegrate the
physiological sciences with mainstream biology,
including evolutionary theory. His new book combines
clear exposition of basic principles with many valuable
examples. He gives the reader, general or expert, a
completely new view of life.' Yung E Earm,
Seoul National University, South Korea
'Dance to the
Tune of Life is one of the most fascinating and
impressive books I have ever read. Denis Noble, a
world-renowned physiologist and systems biologist, has
revolutionized our traditional notion of the nature of
life. The title Dance to the Tune of Life mirrors the
essence of the argument of the book. The life emerges
from numerous biological processes at different scales
and levels. Such actors and actresses, stage properties,
and stage are not separately present they act together
in harmony, dancing to a tune with a music performed by
an orchestra, an organism. By describing his research
experiences and achievements on the cardiac rhythm
evolutionary biology, medicine, and philosophy, Denis
has not only provided us with very modern knowledge of
the biological reactions and their network but also
described to us the nature of life. I believe that this
book impacts everyone involved in biomedicine.'
Yoshihisa Kurachi, Osaka University, Japan
'Having demolished
the 'Selfish Gene' fiction, Noble in this marvelous book
moves both science and philosophy from an antiquated
'either/or' static model to an 'and' model. 'Dance"
shows elegantly and brilliantly that from the miracle of
the ancient symbiosis of mitochondrial bacterial
remnants in human cells, through the rock-solid
interrelationship between genes and the feedback from
the environment in all senses - from the core phenomenon
of functional epigenetics, to the universe itself and
our place in it - that we are, at heart, inter-beings,
co-arising.' Samuel Shem, New York
University
'Denis Noble is a
pioneer in understanding human physiology through
quantitative studies linking behaviour across multiple
scales of biological organization - from proteins to
cells, tissues, organs and organ systems. These studies
have led him to characterize biological function in
terms of a Principle of Biological Relativity: there is
no privileged level of causation in biology, because
living organisms are multilevel open stochastic systems
in which the behaviour at any level depends on higher
and lower levels, and so cannot be fully understood in
isolation. This engaging book defends this view in
depth, and thereby also provides strong support for an
extended synthesis of evolutionary theory that goes
beyond the Modern Synthesis of Neo-Darwinism. It is
highly recommended as a thoughtful study of the kind of
complexity real living organisms display.'
George Ellis FRS, University of Cape Town, South Africa
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