Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Viruses in all Dimensions

How an Information Code Controls Viruses, Software and Microorganisms

  • Book
  • © 2023

Overview

Authors:
  1. Rafael Ball

    1. ETH Library, ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Raises the question What is life where does the machine end and where does the living being begin?
  • The coding of information is amazingly similar in living beings, viruses and computer viruses
  • Reveals similarity of coding in living organisms, viruses and computer viruses

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 29.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 37.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (7 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-viii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Rafael Ball
    Pages 1-7

  3. Viruses, Microorganisms and Molecular Genetics

    • Rafael Ball
    Pages 9-58

  4. Algorithms, Software and Artificial Intelligence

    • Rafael Ball
    Pages 59-72

  5. Computer Viruses, Computer Worms, and the Self-Replication of Programs

    • Rafael Ball
    Pages 73-85

  6. Information, Genetics, and the Evolution of Life

    • Rafael Ball
    Pages 87-117

  7. The Great Continuum: The Convergence of Life and Technology

    • Rafael Ball
    Pages 119-131

  8. The Coevolution of Life and Technology: Summary and Outlook

    • Rafael Ball
    Pages 133-139

  9. Back Matter

    Pages 141-156
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

Microorganisms, viruses, and computer programs encode all the information necessary to reproduce and spread themselves. Yet these mechanisms are amazingly similar in the animate world, in the world of viruses, and even in the world of technical systems. The book shows how great the parallels are between these various animate and inanimate replicating systems and what they are based on.

The excursion also leads into the fascinating world of genetics, to the question of what defines life and into the programming of software that multiplies itself independently. Finally, the question is derived whether and to what extent such self-replicating technical systems can become as dangerous as infectious viruses in triggering pandemics, such as the Corona pandemic in 2020.



Authors and Affiliations

  • ETH Library, ETH Zurich, Zürich, Switzerland

    Rafael Ball

About the author

The author Rafael Ball holds a PhD in biology, is a historian of science and a librarian. He is director of the ETH-Bibliothek Zurich and lecturer in library science and management at the University of Applied Sciences Graubünden. For many years he has been concerned with questions of information theory, science communication and the effects of digitisation on science and society in the present and the future. He is the author of numerous relevant publications, editor of information science journals and speaker at meetings and conferences.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Viruses in all Dimensions

  • Book Subtitle: How an Information Code Controls Viruses, Software and Microorganisms

  • Authors: Rafael Ball

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-38826-3

  • Publisher: Springer Wiesbaden

  • eBook Packages: Computer Science, Computer Science (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, part of Springer Nature 2023

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-658-38825-6Published: 31 March 2023

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-658-38826-3Published: 30 March 2023

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: VIII, 156

  • Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations, 14 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Computers and Society, Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering, Computing Milieux

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation