On Growth, Form and Computers

This volume provides an introduction to developmental biology and computational development; it makes clear key biological and computational concepts and ideas. The volume contains chapters on important topics in developmental biology and computational development from different researchers in the fields. It acts as an introductory guide to the two different disciplines. The book is organized into five sections. The first section deals with developmental biology, exploring topics such as relationships between development and evolution, pattern formation, cell signalling and plasticity. The second section begins to formalize ideas through mathematical and computational models of developmental regulatory networks, pattern formation, plant development and Dictyostelium discoideum development. The third section explores the relationships between physics and development and illustrates the importance of effects such as surface tension and contact-mediated inhibition through examples and computer models. In the fourth section we begin to move away from models designed to explain biological processes and towards algorithms designed to be useful for problem solving in computer science. Here we investigate development-inspired computer algorithms to examine the evolution of evolvability, gene regulatory networks, pattern generation and differentiation. The final section focuses on practical technological applications of development-inspired computation. A glossary is included at the back to help out with all the terminology.