A comment on: A brief survey of major discoveries that impact on eukaryotic cellular pathway modelling (by V.Parisi, V. De Fonzo, F. Aluffi-Pentini)

Abstract

In their work the authors do a very precious work by driving the attention of the readers on recent achievements of molecular biology that open completely new perspectives on eukaryotic regulation.  They actually blur an apparently very straightforward picture turning biological regulation into a complex and intermingled superposition of many and contrasting elements........In my opinion, it is worth noting that in the history of science (as well as in the empirical practice of medicine) considering  the most basic layer as the only possible level for modeling , very rarely was a successful strategy. Since XVII Century, a strict Newtonian scientist like Robert Boyle, was fully aware of the impossibility to model gases at the molecular level: he actually shifted to a completely different level,  looking for collective  macro-parameters as pressure and volume. This strategy resulted in the very efficient and powerful science of Thermodynamics.