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- Title
Reverse engineering of biological complexity.
- Authors
Csete, Marie E; Doyle, John C
- Abstract
Advanced technologies and biology have extremely different physical implementations, but they are far more alike in systems-level organization than is widely appreciated. Convergent evolution in both domains produces modular architectures that are composed of elaborate hierarchies of protocols and layers of feedback regulation, are driven by demand for robustness to uncertain environments, and use often imprecise components. This complexity may be largely hidden in idealized laboratory settings and in normal operation, becoming conspicuous only when contributing to rare cascading failures. These puzzling and paradoxical features are neither accidental nor artificial, but derive from a deep and necessary interplay between complexity and robustness, modularity, feedback, and fragility. This review describes insights from engineering theory and practice that can shed some light on biological complexity.
- Publication
Science (New York, N.Y.), 2002, Vol 295, Issue 5560, p1664
- ISSN
1095-9203
- Publication type
Journal Article
- DOI
10.1126/science.1069981