The Sentient Cell

The Sentient Cell

Author: Arthur S. Reber

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2023-09-08

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0198873255

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All species, extant and extinct, from the simplest unicellular prokaryotes to humans, have an existential consciousness. Without sentience, the first cells that emerged some 4 billion years ago would have been evolutionary dead-ends, unable to survive in the chaotic, dangerous environment in which life first appeared and evolved. In this book, Arthur Reber's theory, the Cellular Basis of Consciousness (CBC), is outlined and distinguished from those models that argue that minds could be instantiated on artificial entities and those that maintain consciousness requires a nervous system. The CBC framework takes a novel approach to classic topics such as the origin-of-life, philosophy of mind, the role of genes, the impact of cognition, and how biological information is processed by all species. It also calls for a rethinking of a variety of issues including the moral implications of the sentient capacities of all species, how welfare concerns need to be expanded beyond where they currently are, and critically, how all life is intertwined in a coordinated cognitive ecology. The Sentient Cell explores this revolutionary model, which updates the standard neo-Darwinian framework within which current approaches operate and examines the underlying biomolecular features that are the likely candidates for the "invention" of consciousness and outline their role in cellular life.


The Sentient Cell

The Sentient Cell

Author: Arthur S. Reber

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2023-10-05

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 0198873212

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All species, extant and extinct, from the simplest unicellular prokaryotes to humans, have an existential consciousness. Without sentience, the first cells that emerged some 4 billion years ago would have been evolutionary dead-ends, unable to survive in the chaotic, dangerous environment in which life first appeared and evolved. In this book, Arthur Reber's theory, the Cellular Basis of Consciousness (CBC), is outlined and distinguished from those models that argue that minds could be instantiated on artificial entities and those that maintain consciousness requires a nervous system. The CBC framework takes a novel approach to classic topics such as the origin-of-life, philosophy of mind, the role of genes, the impact of cognition, and how biological information is processed by all species. It also calls for a rethinking of a variety of issues including the moral implications of the sentient capacities of all species, how welfare concerns need to be expanded beyond where they currently are, and critically, how all life is intertwined in a coordinated cognitive ecology. The Sentient Cell explores this revolutionary model, which updates the standard neo-Darwinian framework within which current approaches operate and examines the underlying biomolecular features that are the likely candidates for the "invention" of consciousness and outline their role in cellular life.


The First Minds

The First Minds

Author: Arthur S. Reber

Publisher:

Published: 2019

Total Pages:

ISBN-13: 9780190854188

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This work presents a novel theory of the origins of mind and consciousness dubbed the Cellular Basis of Consciousness (CBC). It argues that sentience emerged with life itself. The most primitive unicellular species of bacteria are conscious, though it is a sentience of a primitive kind. They have minds, though they are tiny and limited in scope. Hints that cells might be conscious can be found in the writings of a few cell biologists but a fully developed theory has never been put forward before.


The Lives of a Cell

The Lives of a Cell

Author: Lewis Thomas

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 1978-02-23

Total Pages: 162

ISBN-13: 1101667052

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Elegant, suggestive, and clarifying, Lewis Thomas's profoundly humane vision explores the world around us and examines the complex interdependence of all things. Extending beyond the usual limitations of biological science and into a vast and wondrous world of hidden relationships, this provocative book explores in personal, poetic essays to topics such as computers, germs, language, music, death, insects, and medicine. Lewis Thomas writes, "Once you have become permanently startled, as I am, by the realization that we are a social species, you tend to keep an eye out for the pieces of evidence that this is, by and large, good for us."


Is this Cell a Human Being?

Is this Cell a Human Being?

Author: Antoine Suarez

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2011-08-03

Total Pages: 214

ISBN-13: 3642207723

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The central question of this book is whether or not particular cell entities of human origin ought to be considered human beings. The answer is crucial for making moral decisions for or against research and experimentation. Experts in the field discuss the production of embryonic-like pluripotent stem cells by altered nuclear transfer, parthenogenesis and reprogramming of adult somatic cells. They thoroughly analyse the biological and moral status of different cell entities, such as human stem cells, embryos and human-animal hybrid embryos, and make a decisive step towards establishing final criteria for what constitutes a human being. The topic is challenging in nature and of broad interest to all those concerned with current bioethical thought on embryonic human life and its implications for society.


Cell Therapy, Stem Cells and Brain Repair

Cell Therapy, Stem Cells and Brain Repair

Author: Cyndy D. Davis

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2007-11-09

Total Pages: 403

ISBN-13: 1597451479

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As our world continues to evolve, the field of regenerative medicine f- lows suit. Although many modern day therapies focus on synthetic and na- ral medicinal treatments for brain repair, many of these treatments and prescriptions lack adequate results or only have the ability to slow the p- gression of neurological disease or injury. Cell therapy, however, remains the most compelling treatment for neurodegenerative diseases, disorders, and injuries, including Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease, traumatic brain injury, and stroke, which is expanded upon in more detail in Chapter 1 by Snyder and colleagues. Cell therapy is also unique in that it is the only therapeutic strategy that strives to replace lost, damaged, or dysfunctional cells with healthy ones. This repair and replacement may be due to an administration of exogenous cells itself or the activation of the body’s own endogenous reparative cells by a trophic, immune, or inflammatory response to cell transplantation. However, the precise mechanism of how cell therapy works remains elusive and is c- tinuing to be investigated in terms of molecular and cellular responses, in particular. Moreover, Chapter 11 by Emerich and associates, discusses some of the possibilities of cell immunoisolation and the potential for treating central nervous system diseases.


The Embodied Mind

The Embodied Mind

Author: Thomas R. Verny

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2021-10-05

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 1643138006

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As groundbreaking synthesis that promises to shift our understanding of the mind-brain connection and its relationship with our bodies. We understand the workings of the human body as a series of interdependent physiological relationships: muscle interacts with bone as the heart responds to hormones secreted by the brain, all the way down to the inner workings of every cell. To make an organism function, no one component can work alone. In light of this, why is it that the accepted understanding that the physical phenomenon of the mind is attributed only to the brain? In The Embodied Mind, internationally renowned psychiatrist Dr. Thomas R. Verny sets out to redefine our concept of the mind and consciousness. He brilliantly compiles new research that points to the mind’s ties to every part of the body. The Embodied Mind collects disparate findings in physiology, genetics, and quantum physics in order to illustrate the mounting evidence that somatic cells, not just neural cells, store memory, inform genetic coding, and adapt to environmental changes—all behaviors that contribute to the mind and consciousness. Cellular memory, Verny shows, is not just an abstraction, but a well-documented scientific fact that will shift our understanding of memory. Verny describes single-celled organisms with no brains demonstrating memory, and points to the remarkable case of a French man who, despite having a brain just a fraction of the typical size, leads a normal life with a family and a job. The Embodied Mind shows how intelligence and consciousness—traits traditionally attributed to the brain alone—also permate our entire being. Bodily cells and tissues use the same molecular mechanisms for memory as our brain, making our mind more fluid and adaptable than we could have ever imaged.


Cells, Embryos and Evolution

Cells, Embryos and Evolution

Author: Jon Gerhart

Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell

Published: 1997-06-04

Total Pages: 684

ISBN-13:

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Gerhart and Kirschner aim to explain the origins of phenotypic variation and evolutionary adaptation from within eukaryotic cell biological and developmental processes. Their examples are drawn from paleontology, developmental and cell biology.


Evolution

Evolution

Author: James Alan Shapiro

Publisher: Pearson Education

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0132780933

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This book proposes an important new paradigm for understanding biological evolution. Shapiro demonstrates why traditional views of evolution are inadequate to explain the latest evidence, and presents an alternative. His information- and systems-based approach integrates advances in symbiogenesis, epigenetics, and saltationism, and points toward an emerging synthesis of physical, information, and biological sciences.


Cell and Tissue Reaction Engineering

Cell and Tissue Reaction Engineering

Author: Regine Eibl

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2008-09-30

Total Pages: 367

ISBN-13: 3540681825

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The completion of the Human Genome Project and the rapid progress in cell bi- ogy and biochemical engineering, are major forces driving the steady increase of approved biotech products, especially biopharmaceuticals, in the market. Today mammalian cell products (“products from cells”), primarily monoclonals, cytokines, recombinant glycoproteins, and, increasingly, vaccines, dominate the biopharmaceutical industry. Moreover, a small number of products consisting of in vitro cultivated cells (“cells as product”) for regenerative medicine have also been introduced in the market. Their efficient production requires comprehensive knowledge of biological as well as biochemical mammalian cell culture fundamentals (e.g., cell characteristics and metabolism, cell line establishment, culture medium optimization) and related engineering principles (e.g., bioreactor design, process scale-up and optimization). In addition, new developments focusing on cell line development, animal-free c- ture media, disposables and the implications of changing processes (multi-purpo- facilities) have to be taken into account. While a number of excellent books treating the basic methods and applications of mammalian cell culture technology have been published, only little attention has been afforded to their engineering aspects. The aim of this book is to make a contribution to closing this gap; it particularly focuses on the interactions between biological and biochemical and engineering principles in processes derived from cell cultures. It is not intended to give a c- prehensive overview of the literature. This has been done extensively elsewhere.