Heroes Not Zombies

The European Science Foundation (ESF) has published a Forward Look (FL) report System Biology: a grand challenge for Europe. They are seeking to raise awareness of this “novel” way of looking at biology. The quote really caught my eye

“There is a growing awareness in medical science that biological entities are ‘systems’ — collections of interacting parts.”

Well I never! Holism comes to mainstream science! Seriously, this is good news. I think one of the main reasons why medicine has hit its current ceiling on the relief of suffering in chronic disease is its predication on a reductionist model of biology. Complexity science and the study of chaotic systems AND the development of scientific research under the headings of psychoneuroimmunology and psychoneuroendocrinology are beginning to shift the ground away from the reductionists who think that the study of parts is sufficient to those who acknowledge that we in reality, we live in a messy, complex world, which can only be understood through a holistic approach which studies contexts and connections.