Symposium on Information Theory in Biology Edited by H. P. Yockey (review)

and love may not be blended with the highest degree ofscientific accuracy and up-to-date theory and therapy. Readers of Perspectives may know that Peter Quince, also known as George Day, has appeared in the pages ofthisjournal twice before as his own spokesman (Autumn, 1958, and Winter, 1959). He exemplifies the culture and grace of a physician who has been trained in the classics. Critical readers will not be surprised to know that QuillerCouch was a major influence during the author's formative years. These two books, excellently presented for premedical or medical students, will be enjoyed by anyone who wishes to read ofthejoys and sorrows ofphysician and patient told with great skill and charm by a wise physician. William B. Bean State University ofIowa Symposium on Information Theory in Biology. Edited by H. P. Yockey. New York: Pergamon Press, Inc., 1958. $12.00. Information theory in biology is a most important and growing subject, and this book is a valuable account from a number ofauthors ofa variety ofinvestigations and attitudes concerning the status of the theory at the time of its writing. It represents an excellent accumulation ofmaterial for a definitive treatise on biological information theory . On the other hand, it seems to me to suffer from the disadvantages inherent in all scientific symposia. I do not recognize in it anywhere the wealth ofnew ideas and the independent point ofview which seem to me essential for a fundamental advance in this subject. I view with a certain degree ofskepticism the prevalent attitude ofmany scientists at this time—that a major break through is to be made by the mass activity of a large group of competent, but not highly original, thinkers. The book is excellent ofits kind, but I have my doubts that this is the right kind ofbook for bringing information theory in biology to the point where it is fully effective. I am, moreover, somewhat suspicious ofthe full value ofisolating a new discipline under a new label and developing a new scientific name and new vested interests. The book contains a number ofinteresting suggestions concerning how living tissues in general and genes or viruses in particular can contain information. However, it is my conviction that real progress in these fields will involve a considerable intrinsic development ofinformation theory on the mathematical end and that it is somewhat premature to introduce information theory as it exists now into the detail of this work. In other words, valuable and wel)-intentioned as this book is, I consider that it is devoted to the tactics ofinformation theory at a time when our chiefinterest should be in the strategy ofinformation theory. Norbert Wiener Massachusetts Institute of Technology 156 Book Reviews Perspectives in Biology and Medicine · Autumn 1959 ...