Rosennean Complexity and other interests
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A new paper, “So what do we really mean when we say that systems biology is holistic?” [1] discusses the relationship between holism, reductionism and systems biology.
Although the author does provide a historical overview of various interpretations of ‘holism’ and ‘reductionism’, the end result remains: a lack of clarity, specificity and agreement over the […]
The Journal of Biology has begun an interesting thematic series entitled “Ockham’s Broom“[1], which they describe thusly:
Ockham’s broom is an implement conceived by Sydney Brenner as the device whereby inconvenient facts are swept under the carpet. This is common practice in biological research where the facts often cannot be explained all at once; but in […]
A recent article in the Journal of Biology, entitled “Small changes, big results: evolution of morphological discontinuity in mammals” [1], discusses how significant phenotypic changes appear to often be the result of variations of gene expression due to regulatory controls, instead of as a direct result of the primary sequence per se of the DNA:
Rather […]
Published online in Nature Methods today [doi:10.1038/nmeth1078]:
Tomographic phase microscopy
We report a technique for quantitative three-dimensional (3D) mapping of refractive index in live cells and tissues using a phase-shifting laser interferometric microscope with variable illumination angle. We demonstrate tomographic imaging of cells and multicellular organisms, and time-dependent changes in cell structure. Our results will permit quantitative characterization […]
As reported in the Economist:
As he told “The next 10 years”, a conference organised by Microsoft Research in Cambridge, England, Dr Harel has been working on a computer model of C. elegans. He hopes this will reveal exactly how pluripotent stem cells—those capable of becoming any sort of mature cell—decide which speciality they will take […]
From an October 2006 post by Steve Kercel on the ROSEN-L discussion list:
Many of the issues that you have been discussing are addressed in
Systems Biology: Principles, Methods, and Concepts edited by
Andrzej Konopka, ISBN: 0824725204 published by CRC. ….
I have two chapters in the book. One discusses closure to efficient cause
from an engineering perspective, and the […]