Dear Gavin, Information Theory is a specific subfield of Probability Theory applied to Information Sciences. It was used in the 70's in cheminformatics by F. McLafferty (mass spectrometry), A. Dijkstra (infrared spectra databases), etc. Would you reduce Information Science to Information Theory ? But I agree that with you information does not always exist where expected in Chemistry. Shannon introduced the name "entropy" in communication sciences due to the formal similarity between the math expresssion of its informational "entropy" and the math formula issued from the Boltzman mathematical model of the thermodynamic entropy (Clausius). Some people deduced later later that information lies in thermodynamic systems: this confusion relies on the fact that the term "entropy" has now two meanings, and both entropies must not be confused, even if the same math formula appeared at the occasion of two mathematical modeling: the modeling of a thermodynamic system and the modeling of a communication system. Thus I would not seek information here. About bioinformation, I cannot tell you: many FISers are expected to show that it exists much better than me. It remains that information is an abstract concept which exists only in our heads, and which is difficult to define rigorously since it has various aspects. It is a problem of terminology. Stating that information does not exist may be compared to stating that a cloud does not exist: it is hard to define it rigorously and its frontiers are highly fuzzy, but everybody is sure that it exists.
Best regards, Michel. 2011/9/19 Gavin Ritz <garr...@xtra.co.nz>: > Michel > > I had a quick look at those sites, they are just information (general > sematical term about a subject- like I gave you the information on my method > of teaching) on chemistry really nothing to do with the science of > information theory. > > Regards > > Gavin > > -----Original Message----- > From: fis-boun...@listas.unizar.es [mailto:fis-boun...@listas.unizar.es] On > Behalf Of Gavin Ritz > Sent: Monday, 19 September 2011 11:26 a.m. > To: joe.bren...@bluewin.ch > Cc: fis@listas.unizar.es > Subject: Re: [Fis] Chemical information: a field of fuzzy contours ? > > Hi there Joseph > > Can you show me where information is in chemistry? > > What part of chemistry is chemical information? > > I’m less concerned about a unifying definition of information but rather I > would like to see some evidence and experiments for biological information. > > So far I haven’t seen one piece of evidence to suggest that information exits > at all. > > I see a lot of conjecture, assumptions, propositions but not a whole lot of > actual evidence and actual tests. > > Kind regards > > Gavin _______________________________________________ fis mailing list fis@listas.unizar.es https://webmail.unizar.es/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/fis
