Search Results: the chemical basis of morphogenesis by turing alan

14 August 1952 . first edition. Philosophical Transactions of Royal Society of London, Series B. Biological Sciences, no. 641. vol 137. large 4to printed tan-orange wraps. "Price Eight Shillings" on lower end of front cover. pp. 37-72. Seminal paper in the history of physics and biology, but especially important in the theoretical foundation of computer science. Pictures available on request. Fine. no faults, no tears, no chips, no stains. No owner marks. .

1952. ALAN TURING'S MOST CITED WORK TURING, Alan. "THE CHEMICAL BASIS OF MORPHOGENESIS." A fine first-edition offprint from the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B. Biological Sciences, No. 641, Vol. 137, pp. 37-72, 14 August 1952. Published for the Royal Society by the Cambridge University Press, London. Publisher's 1952 offprint, with "Price Eight Shillings" on cover. Many mathematical equations and two figures in text. Quarto, 30 x 23.5 cm, publisher's brick wrappers, title information to upper wrap and spine. Fine. In this, Alan Turing's most heavily-cited work, the pre-eminent mathematician, computer scientist, and hero of WW II turned his brilliant mind towards the biological sciences, proposing a model of pattern-formation that proved seminal in not only biology but also across many scientific fields. In what would be his only published work in the field, Turing addressed a fundamental problem: morphogenesis, the process by which a single cell develops into the… Read More

London: Cambridge University Press for the Royal Society, 1952. First edition. TURING AND THE SECRET OF LIFE. First edition of the extremely rare true offprint (without price to front wrapper), of Turing's last major published work, which was "in every respect ahead of its time" (Copeland, p. 510). Taking his cue from the zoologist D'Arcy Thompson, who held that the forms of living things are to be explained in terms of the operation of physical forces and mathematical laws, Turing presents here the first mathematical theory of embryology. "At a time when Crick and Watson were using X-ray diffraction to establish the structure of DNA, Turing was grappling with a theoretical understanding of how information might be spread and diffused at a chemical level. In a classic statement of the scientific method Turing wrote: 'a mathematical model of the growing embryo will be described. This model will be a simplification and an idealisation, and consequently a falsification. It is to be hoped that the… Read More