Isis Trenchard:Pensieve

Sept 30 2007

Biological systems have an inherent "power" to them that if harnessed, I believe could lead to a revolution in how medicine is performed/administered. By power I mean...well if you imagine a biological system, say something like a bacteria... Within that tiny creature is the ability to sense and respond to all sorts of stimuli from the environment. It can regulate its metabolism, movement, life cycle; it can coordinate with other bacteria around it. Such a simple organism can perform very complex tasks. Now imagine something more complex, like yeast, or a single mammalian cell ...or something even more complex like a tissue or even an organ... Now imagine the incredible complexity of an entire being. The increase in the level of complexity is exponential. Think about the crazy amount of coordination and control each components must exert in order to create a functional system. I think if we could tap into and control just a fraction of this network we could do some pretty cool (useful and helpful) stuff. I know these thoughts about the complexity of human beings are not new, but I was thinking about it the other day and it just made my really excited and completely in awe (again). So, I couldn't stop thinking about it for a while.