In this lecture, we discuss topics related to the chapter, "Information Processing in Living Systems," by Mitchell (2009, Chapter 12). The beginning of the lecture discusses the first use of information theory for a non-human application -- an analysis of the honeybee waggle dance. That requires a description of the waggle dance/waggle run. We then move on to examples brought up by Mitchell -- the adaptive immune system (lymphocytes, B cells, T cells, antibodies) and ants (primarily the use of pheromone trails for recruiting to discovered foods during foraging). Our discussion of the vertebrate adaptive/acquired immune system also gives us an opportunity to briefly discuss the innate immune system (which has a much deeper phylogenetic history). We discuss natural selection within the adaptive immune system, both in terms of negative selection (central tolerance and autoimmune disorders) and positive selection. We close with a brief description of basic trail laying behavior, which we will pick up in our next lecture that will discuss more sophisticated communication cases in ants and other non-human organisms.
Whiteboard notes for this lecture can be found at: https://www.dropbox.com/s/lhwde9zdg25s5mu/SOS220-LectureG3-2023-03-28-Information_Processing_in_Living_Systems.pdf?dl=0
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