AJP - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, Vol 239, Issue 1 1-R6, Copyright © 1980 by American Physiological Society
Computer modeling, complex biological systems, and their simplifications
D. Garfinkel
The amount of information defining a biological system, as specified in its
genome, is vastly larger than the amount of information the human mind can
handle simultaneously in its short-term memory (7 +/- 2 items at most). In
such a situation the mind tends to simplify, linearize, and consider only a
few of many variables that may be involved. This may be limiting when an
experimenter interprets his own experiments without help from theory or
modeling as is common in biology. The Michaelis-Menten model, which is very
useful although not necessarily valid, and its linearizations are described
as an example of this. The social processes and obligations involved in
simplifying complex situations are discussed. Computer simulation provides
a method for investigating complex nonlinear systems that does not require
excessive simplification of the biological system being studied and whose
economics are becoming steadily more favorable.
