Rewrite Science - The Universal Semantic Calculus and Grammatical Cosmos
Symposium 10A - CASYS 07

Nature's Code (one of the two CASYS 07 symposium 10 best paper awards)
Vanessa Hill * and Peter Rowlands **
* School of Biological Sciences. Royal Holloway University of London. Egham Road, Egham, Surrey. TW20 OEX, UK.
Vanessa .hill@rhul.ac.uk
** Department of Physics. University of Liverpool, Oliver Lodge Laboratory. Oxford St. Liverpool, L69 7ZE, UK.
p.rowlands@liverpool.ac.uk

Keywords: Universal rewrite system. Dirac algebra, DNA, genetic code, geometry

Abstract

Biological systems, though operating at the edge of chaos, are extremely ordered, whereas the tendency for nature is to become more disordered. Biology is. in effect, a race between order and entropy with the odds stacked in favour of entropy. So biological systems must create order, i.e. process information, with as much efficiency as possible. It would appear that the efficient processing of information requires certain algebraic and geometric structures, which are also found in systems organized at other scales, in particular, physics.

This paper examines the mathematical structures apparently underlying different aspects of physics and biology in relation to their possible common origin and especially in relation to the universal rewrite system and the consequent nilpotent Dirac algebra. We propose that this is part of a universal system of process applicable to Nature, which we may describe as 'Nature's code'. In this connection, we draw attention to our demonstration of the significance to fundamental processes of such concepts as 4 basic units.

64- and 20-unit structures, symmetry-breaking and 5-fold symmetry, chirality, double 3-dimensionality, the double helix, the Van der Waals force and the harmonic oscillator mechanism, and our explanation of how they necessarily lead to self-aggregation, complexity and emergence in higher-order systems Biological concepts, such as translation, transcription, replication, the genetic code and the grouping of amino acids appear to be driven by fundamental processes of this kind, and it would seem that the Platonic solids, pentagonal symmetry and Fibonacci numbers have significant roles in organizing 'Nature's code', and, in particular, in organizing the structures and operations of DNA and RNA. and the processes that we describe as the genetic code.