Research Signpost 37/661 (2), Fort P.O. Trivandrum-695 023 Kerala, India D. Fels, M. Cifra and F. Scholkmann (Editors), Fields of the Cell , 2015, ISBN: 978-81-308-0544-3, p. 1–27. Chapter 1 The evolution of the biological field concept Antonios Tzambazakis Institute of Anatomy and Clinical Morphology, Department of Human Medicine, Faculty of Health, Witten/Herdecke University, Alfred-Herrhausen-Straße 50, 58448 Witten, Germany Abstract: The dialogue with Nature about Time and Change has pointed to the functional synthesis of linearity with non-linearity since the times of Epicurus. The modern concepts of Quantum Coherence, Self-Organization, Deterministic Chaos and Reciprocal Causality in biology, also suggest an integration of lineari- ty with non-linearity, of molecular with field aspects. In this review, we discuss the theories and experimental evidence on the existence, the role and the prop- erties of a biological field, following the arrow of time in a scientific perspective that unites being with becoming, and particles with fields. Correspondence/Reprint request: Dr. Antonios Tzambazakis, Institute of Anatomy and Clinical Morphology Department of Human Medicine, Faculty of Health, Universitat Witten/Herdecke, Alfred-Herrhausen-Straße 50 58448 Witten, Germany. E-mail:
[email protected] 1. Introduction Alexander Gurwitsch introduced for the first time the field concept into biol- ogy in 1912 (Gurwitsch, 1912). Gurwitsch tried to solve the biological prob- lem of morphogenesis, and since chemical reactions do not contain spatial or temporal patterns a priori, he looked for a "morphogenetic field" as a supra- cellular dynamic law embracing all three levels of biological organization – molecular, cellular and morphological (Lipkind, 2006).