Post-Genomics ? Systems Biology

Post-Genomics ? Systems Biology:

Systems Biology
Posted by Sahotra Sarkar, Ph.D. on December 09th 2005 to General

Systems Biology1
Over a half-century ago, the renowned (and eccentric)2 mathematician, Norbert Wiener, suggested that living organisms be viewed as systems governed by feedback control.3 Wiener attempted to found a new discipline—“cybernetics”—for the study of such systems. In spite of Wiener’s impassioned proselytization on behalf of the new discipline, cybernetics didn’t amount to much. It generated some excitement in the social sciences in the 1950s4 and then fizzled out. Engineers occasionally referred to cybernetic concepts (especially feedback) but that’s about it. In biology, especially in the emerging field of molecular biology, cybernetics proved to be a disaster.5 Strangely, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, Wiener’s vision has returned with a vengeance.

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