Conceptual and methodological biases in network models.
Many natural and biological phenomena can be depicted as networks. Theoretical and empirical analyses of networks have become prevalent. I discuss theoretical biases involved in the delineation of biological networks. The network perspective is shown to dissolve the distinction between regulatory architecture and regulatory state, consistent with the theoretical impossibility of distinguishing a priori between "program" and "data." The evolutionary significance of the dynamics of trans-generational and interorganism regulatory networks is explored and implications are presented for understanding the evolution of the biological categories development-heredity, plasticity-evolvability, and epigenetic-genetic.
The Cohn Institute For the History and Philosophy of Science and Ideas, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel. ehudlamm@post.tau.ac.il
Ehud
E
Lamm
D019295:Computational Biology; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D053263:Gene Regulatory Networks; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer