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EVOLUTION. "The main processes of evolution are natural selection, genetic drift, gene flow and mutation and they form an integral part of the theory that underpins population genetics. Studies in this branch of biology examine such phenomena as adaptation, speciation, population subdivision, and population structure." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_genetics View in LinkedIn

TWIST ON FAMOUS APHORISM. “Nothing in evolution makes sense except in the light of population genetics.” http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004351 View in LinkedIn

TWO WAY FLOW. “I and my colleagues have expressed many of the ideas briefly outlined here in the form of some principles of systems biology. One of those principles is that, a priori, there is no privileged level of causation in biological systems. Determining the level at which a function is integrated is an empirical question.” http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/1/55 View in LinkedIn

EVERYTHING IS CONTEXTUAL. “A difference in DNA sequence may have a wide variety of possible phenotypic effects, including no effect at all, until the boundary conditions are set, including the actions of many other genes, the metabolic and other states of the cell or organism, and the environment in which the organism exists.” http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/1/55 View in LinkedIn

NON-GENOMIC EFFECTS. “As many as 80 per cent of the knockouts in yeast are normally ‘silent’ in this way. Their functionality can be revealed only when the boundary conditions, such as the nutrient environment, are changed.” http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/1/55 View in LinkedIn

MUTE KNOCKOUTS. “By contrast, the integral view for which I am arguing does not focus on differences. Instead it asks: what are all the functions to which the particular DNA sequence contributes? Indeed, it would not matter whether those functions are ones that result in a different phenotype. Through the existence of multiple back-up mechanisms, many DNA changes, such as knockouts, do not have a phenotypic effect on their own.” http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/1/55 View in LinkedIn

GRAVE PROBLEM. “It is relatively easy to show that complete bottom-up reconstructions from the level of molecules to the level of whole organs would require much more computing power than we are ever likely to have available.” http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/1/55 View in LinkedIn

PARTICLES ARE CONTEXTUAL. “Biological reductionists whose motivation is that of reducing biology to physics need to be aware that physics itself also displays the kind of limits I am describing here. Nor are these limits restricted to particle theory.” http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/1/55 View in LinkedIn

REDUCTIONISM. “The idea is that if a phenomenon is too complex to understand at level X then go down to level Y and see, first, whether the interactions at level Y are easier to understand and theorize about, then, second, see whether from that understanding one can automatically understand level X.” http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/1/55 View in LinkedIn

REDUCTIONISM VERSUS EMERGENCE. “Reference to emergence leads me to a fundamental point about the limits of reductionism. An important motivation towards reductionism is that of reducing complexity.” http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/1/55 View in LinkedIn