Georges Chapouthier & Marie-Christine Maurel 
The Explosion of Life Forms 
Living Beings and Morphology

One of the essential characteristics of living beings is the explosion of
variety in their forms that is intrinsically linked to the diversity of the
environments they have adapted to.

This book, the result of collaboration between international specialists,
analyzes the multiplicity of these morphologies. It explores the origin of
forms, their role in defining living things, and the relationship between
form and function. It exposes the role of genes and epigenetics and
examines the forms of bacteria, protists and plants.
The Explosion of Life Forms also studies the memory of animals and
their sensory processes, the forms of robots (built in the image of living
things), and medical technologies aimed at restoring damaged living
forms.
Finally, this work questions a common principle of construction in the
diversity of forms, as well as the idea of an abandonment of the form, a
possible hidden defect of some modern philosophies.

About the author

Georges Chapouthier is a biologist, philosopher and Emeritus Director
of Research at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS)
in France. His research interests focus on animals and the brain.

Marie-Christine Maurel is a Professor at Sorbonne University and a
researcher at the Institut de Systematique, Evolution, Biodiversite
laboratory at the National Museum of Natural History in France. Her
research interests focus on the origins of life, RNA, viroids and
molecular archeobiology.