Biology needs revolution. All my adult life, I have been lost with admiration for the achievements in molecular biology and genetics, and I have come to know many of the main proponents. Yet there is an alternative aspect: in studying the minutiae, we have lost sight of the whole cell as organism. Living cells within the body are modelled in this paper as coordinated but essentially autonomous entities. We shall see how independent cells in nature have remarkable abilities to make decisions and take constructive action, which correlate with the definitions of intelligence.
We are taught that the brain controls everything that goes on in the body, yet in this paper, we discover that most of the body's cells are invisible to the brain and are indifferent to its regulation. We encounter a novel model of the brain in which the neuron is viewed as an ingenious entity that ‘thinks’ within itself. The brain is not a ‘super computer’ but an entire community of them. We shall set the reductionism of molecular biology and the elementary mechanisms of genetics into a more realistic perspective and will recognize that the cell as organism matters above all. In future, whole cell biology should become the focus of the biosciences and the intelligent cell lies at its heart.
BallPhilip. 2008. Cellular memory hints at the origins of intelligence. Nature451: 385.
3.
BinetAlfred. 1905. The development of the Binet-Simon scale, new methods for the diagnosis of the intellectual level of subnormals. In Readings in the history of psychology. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
4.
CajalSantiago Ramón y.1917. Recuerdos de mi Vida. Madrid: Moya.
5.
HansangCho, CorinaD., OjemannG.A., SchoenfieldJ., ZamoraL., and ShapiroL.. 2003. A new neuron spike sorting method using maximal overlap discrete wavelet transform and rotated principal component analysis.Proceedings of the Twenty-fifth Annual International Conference of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers3 (17–21): 2921–4.
6.
de DuveC. 1984. A guided tour of the living cell. New York: Scientific American Library.
7.
FerryGeorgina. 2007. Max Perutz and the secret of life. London: Chatto & Windus.
8.
FordBrian J. 1999. Genes, the fight for life, 212. London: Cassells, New York: Sterling.
9.
FordBrian J. 2004, Are cells ingenious?The Microscope52 (3/4): 135–44.
10.
FordBrian J. 2006, Revealing the ingenuity of the living cell. Biologist53 (4): 221–4.
11.
FordBrian J. 2007. Enlightening neuroscience, microscopes and microscopy in the eighteenth century. In Brain, mind and medicine, essays in eighteenth-century neuroscience, ed. WhitakerH., SmithC.U.M., and FingerS.. New York: Springer.
12.
FordBrian J. 2008a. Microscopical substantiation of intelligence in living cells. InFocus, Royal Microscopical Society 12: 6–21.
13.
FordBrian J. 2008b. The sound of cells talking. Today, 20 October 2008. London: BBC Radio. news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_7679000/7679354.stm, 21/8/09.
14.
FordBrian J. 2009. Did Physics matter to the pioneers of microscopy? In Advances in imaging and electron physics, ed. Hawkes, volPeter W.. 158: 27–87, New York: Academic Press.
15.
GardnerHoward. 1993. Frames of mind: the theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books.
16.
HaeckelErnst. 1868. Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte. Berlin: Georg Reimer.
17.
HaeckelErnst. 1878. Zell-Seelen und Seelen-Zellen, Gessamelte populare Vortrage, I Hefte. [Cited in] Haeckel, Ernst. 1900. The riddle of the universe at the end of the nineteenth century. New York &London: Harper Bros.
18.
HookeRobert. 1665. Micrographia, or some physiological descriptions of minute bodies made by magnifying glasses. London: Martyn, J., & Allestry, J. Facsimile reprinted1961, New York: Dover Publications.
19.
JoadC.E.M. 1943. Philosophical aspects of modern science. London: George Allen.
20.
KimGwang Hoon, and FritzLawrence. 1993. A signal glycoprotein with α-d-mannisol residues is involved in the wound-healing response of Antithamnion sparsum(Ceramiales, Rhodophyta). Journal of Phycology29 (1): 85–90.
21.
L'Hardy-HamosM-Th.1971. Recherches sur les Céramiacées (Rhodophycées, Céramiales) et leur morphologénès.Revue Genérale de Botanique78: 201–6, 407–91.
22.
LaughlinRobert. 2005. A different universe: Reinventing physics from the bottom down. New York: Basic Books.
23.
LeeuwenhoekAntony van.1932-present. The collected letters of Antony van Leeuwenhoek. Amsterdam: Swets & Zeitlinger.
24.
McCroneJohn. 2002. How the brain works – A beginner's guide to the mind and consciousness. London: Dorling Kindersley.
25.
MorangeMichel. 2008. The death of molecular biology?History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences30 (1): 31–42.
26.
MullerHerbert J. 1943. Science and criticism. New Haven: Yale University Press.
27.
OlopardeOlufunmilayoI. 2004. Genetics in cancer care – a promise unfulfilled among minority populations.Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention13: 1683–6.
28.
OtisL. 2001. Networking, communicating with bodies and machines in the nineteenth century. Michigan: University of Michigan Press.
29.
QuevliNels. 1916. Cell intelligence, the cause of evolution. Minneapolis: Colwell Press.
30.
RosenRobert. 2000. Essays on life itself. New York: Columbia University Press.
31.
SylviaClaire, and NovakWilliam. 1997. A change of heart. New York: Warner Books.
32.
TakagiS., NishiuraY., NakagakiT., and UedaT.. 2007. Indecisive behaviour of Amœba crossing an environmental barrier.InTopological aspects of critical studies and networks, 86–94. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing.
33.
TakeuchiLeslie A. 2004. Cellular Memory in Organ Transplants. San Francisco Medicine (August). www.sfms.org,accessed 21/8/09.
34.
ThomasL. 1974. The lives of a cell. New York: Viking Press(reprinted by New York: Penguin Group, 1978).
35.
VerwornM. 1888. Biologische Protisten-Studien.Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftliche Zoologie46 (4): 455–70.
36.
WaalandS.D. 1975. Evidence for a species-specific cell fusion hormone in red algae. Protoplasma86: 253–61.
37.
WaalandS.D, and ClelandR.E.. 1974. Cell repair through cell fusion in the red alga Griffithsia pacifica. Protoslasma79: 185–96.
38.
WaiteJohn. 2008. Repeat from Today programme.Pick of the Week, BBC Radio Four: 1815–1900h, 26 October.
39.
WatkinsG.P. 1900, Psychical life in protozoa. The American Journal of Psychology11 (2): 166–80.
40.
WechslerDavid. 1939. The measurement and appraisal of adult intelligence. Baltimore: Williams& Wilkins; fourth edition 1958.
41.
WolpertLewis. 2009. The secret lives of cells. London: Faber & Faber.
42.
ZockJoseph, and PalmerRebecca J.. 2008. Unfulfilled promise of predictive toxicology. Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News28 (19): 1–10.
