What do Biological Cells and Democracy Have in Common?
Thursday, February 19, 2009 - 14:28
in Biology & Nature
(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the New England Complex Systems Institute (NECSI) and Harvard University offer a groundbreaking new perspective on how genes determine and regulate the functional identity of a cell. The study, titled Attractors and Democratic Dynamics, appears in the latest issue of Science. It examines views of cell regulation and suggests a model that accounts for a cell's robustness to random perturbations and its sensitivity to specific environmental changes.