Issues in a SYSTEM approach to radiobiology

After several decades of a profoundly reductionist approach to biology the research community is now being encouraged to be more “integrative” and this includes the recommendation to adopt “a systems biology” approach. I very much endorse this advice depending on what is meant by the term “systems biology”. So instead I use the term “systems approach” for this presentation. I will try and demonstrate here that taking such an approach, is illuminating, requires the subject to be addressed from first principles and I warn that it will require a dedicated research effort which will be novel by traditional standards.