Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Jun;24(12):1827-9.
doi: 10.1091/mbc.E12-03-0227.

Biology is more theoretical than physics

Jeremy Gunawardena  1
Affiliations

Biology is more theoretical than physics

Jeremy Gunawardena. Mol Biol Cell. 2013 Jun.

Abstract

The word "theory" is used in at least two senses--to denote a body of widely accepted laws or principles, as in "Darwinian theory" or "quantum theory," and to suggest a speculative hypothesis, often relying on mathematical analysis, that has not been experimentally confirmed. It is often said that there is no place for the second kind of theory in biology and that biology is not theoretical but based on interpretation of data. Here, ideas from a previous essay are expanded upon to suggest, to the contrary, that the second kind of theory has always played a critical role and that biology, therefore, is a good deal more theoretical than physics.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Ahlquist R. A study of the adrenotropic receptors. Am J Physiol. 1948;153:586–600. - PubMed
    1. Ahlquist R. Adrenergic receptors: a personal and practical view. Perspect Biol Med. 1973;17:119–122. - PubMed
    1. Astbury WT, Bell FO. Some recent developments in the X-ray study of proteins and related structures. Cold Spring Harbor Symp Quant Biol. 1938;6:109–121.
    1. Baker S, Kinzler KW, Vogelstein B. Knudson's hypothesis and the TP53 revolution. Genes Chromosomes Cancer. 2003;38:329. - PubMed
    1. Ben-Shlomo I, Hsu SY, Rauch R, Kowalski HW, Hsueh AJW. Signaling receptome: a genomic and evolutionary perspective of plasma membrane receptors involved in signal transduction. Sci STKE. 2003;187:re9. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources