Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Determinacy in a synchronous π-calculus
- 2 Classical coordination mechanisms in the chemical model
- 3 Sequential algorithms as bistable maps
- 4 The semantics of dataflow with firing
- 5 Kahn networks at the dawn of functional programming
- 6 A simple type-theoretic language: Mini-TT
- 7 Program semantics and infinite regular terms
- 8 Algorithms for equivalence and reduction to minimal form for a class of simple recursive equations
- 9 Generalized finite developments
- 10 Semantics of program representation graphs
- 11 From Centaur to the Meta-Environment: a tribute to a great meta-technologist
- 12 Towards a theory of document structure
- 13 Grammars as software libraries
- 14 The Leordo computation system
- 15 Theorem-proving support in programming language semantics
- 16 Nominal verification of algorithm W
- 17 A constructive denotational semantics for Kahn networks in Coq
- 18 Asclepios: a research project team at INRIA for the analysis and simulation of biomedical images
- 19 Proxy caching in split TCP: dynamics, stability and tail asymptotics
- 20 Two-by-two static, evolutionary, and dynamic games
- 21 Reversal strategies for adjoint algorithms
- 22 Reflections on INRIA and the role of Gilles Kahn
- 23 Can a systems biologist fix a Tamagotchi?
- 24 Computational science: a new frontier for computing
- 25 The descendants of Centaur: a personal view on Gilles Kahn's work
- 26 The tower of informatic models
- References
23 - Can a systems biologist fix a Tamagotchi?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Determinacy in a synchronous π-calculus
- 2 Classical coordination mechanisms in the chemical model
- 3 Sequential algorithms as bistable maps
- 4 The semantics of dataflow with firing
- 5 Kahn networks at the dawn of functional programming
- 6 A simple type-theoretic language: Mini-TT
- 7 Program semantics and infinite regular terms
- 8 Algorithms for equivalence and reduction to minimal form for a class of simple recursive equations
- 9 Generalized finite developments
- 10 Semantics of program representation graphs
- 11 From Centaur to the Meta-Environment: a tribute to a great meta-technologist
- 12 Towards a theory of document structure
- 13 Grammars as software libraries
- 14 The Leordo computation system
- 15 Theorem-proving support in programming language semantics
- 16 Nominal verification of algorithm W
- 17 A constructive denotational semantics for Kahn networks in Coq
- 18 Asclepios: a research project team at INRIA for the analysis and simulation of biomedical images
- 19 Proxy caching in split TCP: dynamics, stability and tail asymptotics
- 20 Two-by-two static, evolutionary, and dynamic games
- 21 Reversal strategies for adjoint algorithms
- 22 Reflections on INRIA and the role of Gilles Kahn
- 23 Can a systems biologist fix a Tamagotchi?
- 24 Computational science: a new frontier for computing
- 25 The descendants of Centaur: a personal view on Gilles Kahn's work
- 26 The tower of informatic models
- References
Summary
Abstract
Gilles Kahn was a serious scientist, but part of his style and effectiveness was in the great sense of curiosity and fun that he injected in the most technical topics. Some of his later projects involved connecting computing and the traditional sciences. I offer a perspective on the culture shock between biology and computing, in the style in which I would have explained it to him.
The nature of nature
In a now classic peer-reviewed commentary, “Can a Biologist Fix a Radio?”, Yuri Lazebnik describes the serious difficulties that scientists have in understanding biological systems. As an analogy, he describes the approach biologists would take if they had to study radios, instead of biological organisms, without having prior knowledge of electronics.
We would eventually find how to open the radios and will find objects of various shape, color, and size […]. We would describe and classify them into families according to their appearance. We would describe a family of square metal objects, a family of round brightly colored objects with two legs, round-shaped objects with three legs and so on. Because the objects would vary in color, we will investigate whether changing the colors affects the radio's performance. Although changing the colors would have only attenuating effects (the music is still playing but a trained ear of some people can discern some distortion), this approach will produce many publications and result in a lively debate.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- From Semantics to Computer ScienceEssays in Honour of Gilles Kahn, pp. 517 - 528Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009