Symbiosis as a model for a new biology

Contemporary biology belongs among the most diversified sciences; yet one of its most fundamental and controversial questions is surprisingly: "What is life?". The aim of this study is to point out that biology is special among other natural sciences because its need of the notion of meaning. Meaning takes the central position in the biological rea-soning. Compared to other sciences, biology has to reflect the dimension of information and its interpretation: language-like properties, communication and interpretation belong to the basic characteristics of life. In spite of the fact, most contemporary theories of evo-lution deny active participation of living beings on the very process - living being come out of its description as puppets or zombies controlled by external forces. As a remedy from such a situation, biology should start with a new model for living entities. A bene-ficial methapor seems to be that of natural languages, i.e. an analogy between a net of historical interactions and conventional ways of interpretation of meaning in (i) living entities and (ii) in system of natural languages. I consider as the most appropriate biolo-gical systems for modeling of such a network of symbiotic interactions, i. e. the pheno-menon of symbiosis and especially symbiogenesis. Keywords: life,..

Archaebacteria - witnesses of the Archean, or a hot novelty of the Proterozoic?

Department of Philosophy and History of ScienceKatedra filosofie a dějin přírodních vědPřírodovědecká fakultaFaculty of Scienc

The phenomenon of symbiosis and its importance to theoretical biology

7 Abstract Close physical interspecific associations called symbioses are central for understanding both evolution and interactions of all branches of living creatures, as well as shaping the Earth's physical features - in other words, they are essential for understanding the nature of whole biosphere. Symbiotic research takes place in some variation in all fields of biology, and since the nature of the phenomenon apparently has a fundamental importance as an exceptional underlying & unifying scheme, there is growing need for appropriate theoretical analysis. Here I discuss the theoretical frame, definition and history of the concept of symbiotic interactions and its significance and use in theoretical biology. Keywords: symbiosis, life, microorganisms, evolution, metaphors and model

Archaebacteria - witnesses of the Archean, or a hot novelty of the Proterozoic?

Department of Philosophy and History of ScienceKatedra filosofie a dějin přírodních vědPřírodovědecká fakultaFaculty of Scienc

Symbiosis as a model for a new biology

Contemporary biology belongs among the most diversified sciences; yet one of its most fundamental and controversial questions is surprisingly: "What is life?". The aim of this study is to point out that biology is special among other natural sciences because its need of the notion of meaning. Meaning takes the central position in the biological rea-soning. Compared to other sciences, biology has to reflect the dimension of information and its interpretation: language-like properties, communication and interpretation belong to the basic characteristics of life. In spite of the fact, most contemporary theories of evo-lution deny active participation of living beings on the very process - living being come out of its description as puppets or zombies controlled by external forces. As a remedy from such a situation, biology should start with a new model for living entities. A bene-ficial methapor seems to be that of natural languages, i.e. an analogy between a net of historical interactions and conventional ways of interpretation of meaning in (i) living entities and (ii) in system of natural languages. I consider as the most appropriate biolo-gical systems for modeling of such a network of symbiotic interactions, i. e. the pheno-menon of symbiosis and especially symbiogenesis. Keywords: life,..

The phenomenon of symbiosis and its importance to theoretical biology

7 Abstract Close physical interspecific associations called symbioses are central for understanding both evolution and interactions of all branches of living creatures, as well as shaping the Earth's physical features - in other words, they are essential for understanding the nature of whole biosphere. Symbiotic research takes place in some variation in all fields of biology, and since the nature of the phenomenon apparently has a fundamental importance as an exceptional underlying & unifying scheme, there is growing need for appropriate theoretical analysis. Here I discuss the theoretical frame, definition and history of the concept of symbiotic interactions and its significance and use in theoretical biology. Keywords: symbiosis, life, microorganisms, evolution, metaphors and model

Pharmaceuticals, benzene, toluene and chlorobenzene removal from contaminated groundwater by combined UV/H2O2 photo-oxidation and aeration

This study was performed to test the feasibility of several decontamination methods for remediatingheavily contaminated groundwater in a real contaminated locality in the Czech Republic, where apharmaceuticals plant has been in operation for more than 80 years. The site is polluted mainly byrecalcitrant psychopharmaceuticals and monoaromatic hydrocarbons, such as benzene, toluene andchlorobenzene. For this purpose, an advanced oxidation technique employing UV radiation withhydrogen peroxide dosing was employed, in combination with simple aeration pretreatment. The resultsshowed that UV/H2O2was an efficient and necessary step for degradation of the pharmaceuticals;however, the monoaromatics were already removed during the aeration step. Characterization of theremoval mechanisms participating in the aeration revealed that volatilization, co-precipitation andbiodegradation contributed to the process. Thesefindings were supported by bacterial metabolite ana-lyses, phospholipid fatty acid analysis, qPCR of representatives of the degradative genes and detailedcharacterization of the formed precipitate using M€ossbauer spectroscopy and scanning electron micro-scopy. Further tests were carried out in a continuous arrangement directly connected to the wells alreadypresent in the locality. The results documented the feasibility of combination of the photo-reactoremploying UV/H2O2together with aeration pretreatment for 4 months, where the overall decontami-nation efficiency ranged from 72% to 99% of the pharmaceuticals. We recorded even better results for themonoaromatics decontamination except for one month, when we encountered some technical problemswith the aeration pump. This demonstrated the necessity of using the aeration step