Denis Noble

His 2006 book The Music of Life examines some of the basic aspects of systems biology, and is critical of the ideas of genetic determinism and genetic reductionism. He points out that there are many examples of feedback loops and "downward causation" in biology, and that it is not reasonable to privilege one level of understanding over all others. He also explains that genes in fact work in groups and systems, so that the genome is more like a set of organ pipes than a "blueprint for life". His 2016 book Dance to the Tune of Life sets these ideas out in a broad sweep from the general principle of relativity applied to biology, through to the role of purpose in evolution and to the relativity of epistemology.

He contrasts Dawkins's famous statement in The Selfish Gene ("Now they [genes] swarm ... safe inside gigantic lumbering robots ... they created us, body and mind; and their preservation is the ultimate rationale for our existence") with an alternative view: "Now they [genes] are trapped in huge colonies, locked inside highly intelligent beings, moulded by the outside world, communicating with it by complex processes, through which, blindly, as if by magic, function emerges. They are in you and me; we are the system that allows their code to be read; and their preservation is totally dependent on the joy we experience in reproducing ourselves. We are the ultimate rationale for their existence". He then suggests that there is no empirical difference between these statements, and says that they differ in "metaphor" and "sociological or polemical viewpoint".[17]

He argues that "the paradigms for genetic causality in biological systems are seriously confused" and that "The metaphors that served us well during the molecular biological phase of recent decades have limited or even misleading impacts in the multilevel world of systems biology. New paradigms are needed if we are to succeed in unravelling multifactorial genetic causation at higher levels of physiological function and so to explain the phenomena that genetics was originally about."[18]

Noble has called for an extended evolutionary synthesis, and more controversially a replacement for the modern synthesis.[19][20]

He has argued that from research in epigenetics, acquired characteristics can be inherited and in contrast to the modern synthesis, genetic change is "far from random" and not always gradual. He has also claimed that the central dogma of molecular biology has been broken as an "embodiment of the Weismann Barrier",[21] and a new synthesis will integrate research from physiology with evolutionary biology.[22][23][24]

Denis Noble at a meeting on Systems Biology at Chicheley Hall, August 2013

Noble has proposed Ten Principles of Systems Biology:[25][26]

1. Biological functionality is multi-level
2. Transmission of information is not one way
3. DNA is not the sole transmitter of inheritance
4. The theory of biological relativity: there is no privileged level of causality
5. Gene ontology will fail without higher-level insight
6. There is no genetic program
7. There are no programs at any other level
8. There are no programs in the brain
9. The self is not an object
10. There are many more to be discovered; a genuine 'theory of biology' does not yet exist

• 1961–1963 – Assistant lecturer in Physiology, University College London
• 1961–1963 – Vice-warden of Connaught Hall (University of London)[27]
• 1963–1984 – Fellow and tutor, Balliol College, Oxford. University Lecturer in Physiology
• From 1967 – Editor of Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology[28]
• 1969–1970 – Visiting professor and visiting scientist of the Canadian MRC
• 1971–1989 – Head (praefectus) of the Balliol College Graduate Centre at Holywell Manor
• 1975–1985 – Leader of MRC Programme Grant team
• 1983–1985 – Vice-master of Balliol College
• 1986 – co-founder of Save British Science, now the Campaign for Science and Engineering
• 1984–2004 – Burdon Sanderson Professor of Cardiovascular Physiology, Oxford University
• 1984–2004 – Professorial fellow, Balliol College
• From 2004 – Emeritus professor of Cardiovascular Physiology, Oxford University
• From 2004 – Emeritus fellow of Balliol College, Oxford
• From 2004 – Director of Computational Physiology, Oxford
• 2003–2007 – Adjunct professor, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Shaanxi province, China
• From 2005 – Visiting professor, Osaka University, Japan
• 2009–2017 – President, International Union of Physiological Sciences[29]
• From 2009 – Co-founder and editor of Voices from Oxford[30]
• 2011–2017 – Editor in chief of Interface Focus[31][32][33]
• From 2014 – Member and co-founder of The Third Way of Evolution[34]

Noble has published over 600 articles in academic journals,[2][14] including Nature,[9][10][35][36][37][38] Science,[39][40] PNAS,[41] Journal of Physiology,[42][43][44][45][46] Progress in Biophysics & Molecular Biology;[47] Many articles in national press. He is the author or editor of 12 books, including:

• The Initiation of the Heartbeat (OUP, 1975, 1979 and Japanese translation), sole author;
• Electric Current Flow in Excitable Cells OUP, 1975. With J.J.B.Jack & R.W.Tsien
• Electrophysiology of Single Cardiac Cells, Academic Press 1987, with T Powell
• Goals, No Goals and Own Goals, Unwin Hyman 1989, with Alan Montefiore, and author
• Sodium-Calcium Exchange, OUP, 1989, with T.J.A. Allen and H. Reuter, and author
• Ionic Channels and the Effect of Taurine on the Heart, Springer, 1993, 2013, with Y.E. Earm
• The Logic of Life (OUP 1993), co-editor with CAR Boyd, and author;
• The Ethics of Life (UNESCO 1997) co-editor with J-D Vincent;
• The Music of Life, Biology beyond the genome OUP, 2006 (9 translations), sole author
• Dance to the Tune of Life. Biological Relativity CUP, 2016, sole author
• Exosomes: A Clinical Compendium Academic Press, 2019, co-editor, and author