Towards a paradigm shift in biology

A Paradigm Shift in Biology?

All new developments in biology deal with the issue of the complexity of organisms, often pointing out the necessity to update our current understanding. However, it is impossible to think about a change of paradigm in biology without introducing new explanatory mechanisms. I shall introduce the mechanisms of teleonomy and teleology as viable explanatory tools. Teleonomy is the ability of organ...

Systems Biology: A Paradigm Shift?

John Bothwell [4] examines skeptically the recent claims made about systems biology in terms such as “a revolution” and “paradigm shift”. Indeed in a recent book [17] , the noted physiologist Denis Noble even goes off the edge, calling for fundamental shifts in our philosophical and even linguistic processes to incorporate oriental . Bothwell on the other hand, argues that Systems Biology “shou...

Towards a Paradigm Shift in Economics?

Economists and the financial community share a paradoxical fate: their economic influence is strengthened by their mistakes. We all agree that they share much of the responsibility for the crisis, yet we do not call their credibility into question. Over the past five years, the financial markets’ leading actors, notably the credit-rating agencies and major banks, have increased their ability to...

paradigm shift of health towards obesity in childhood

Preconditioning: a paradigm shift in the biology of myocardial ischemia.

The discovery of preconditioning (PC) has arguably been the single most important development in the field of ischemic biology in the past 20 years. The significance of this phenomenon transcends cardiovascular medicine, since it is ubiquitously observed in virtually every tissue of the body. This article reviews the pathophysiology and molecular basis of myocardial PC, with particular emphasis...