Biology education in the light of single cell/molecule studies
Stochastic processes are often presented in terms of random, that is unpredictable, events. This framing obscures the reality that stochastic processes, while more or less unpredictable at the level of individual events, are well behaved at the population level. It also obscures the role of stochastic processes in a wide range of predictable phenomena; in atomic systems, for example, unknown factors determine the timing of the radioactive decay of a particular unstable atom, at the same time the rate of radioactive decay is highly predictable in a large enough population. Similarly, in the classical double-slit experiment the passage of a single photon, electron, or C60 molecule is unpredictable while the behavior of a larger population is perfectly predictable. The macroscopic predictability of the Brownian motion (a stochastic process) enabled Einstein to argue for the reality of atoms. Similarly, the dissociation of a molecular complex or the occurrence of a chemical...