Towards a New Theory of Biological Information

Many attempts have been made to understand biomolecular machines, such as the ribosome, from a computational and information-theoretic perspective. However, it is well-understood that current information theory is limited to symbolic (i.e., syntactic) manipulations only and is not equipped to deal with objects that possess functions beyond such manipulations. In this study, we present a quantitative analysis of the information-processing abilities of several classes of biomolecular machines that demonstrates their capacities for biological information. Furthermore, we argue that such machines possess functions that lie beyond the scope of traditional Shannon information theory and require a new description to completely characterize them. Finally, we propose new ways to extend current models by rigorously abstracting the structure and dynamics of these machines.