O atual paradigma da biologia molecular dará lugar a uma biologia mais de 'engenharia' ...

A New Biology for a New Century

Carl R. Woese*

Department of Microbiology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801

Biology today is at a crossroads. The molecular paradigm, which so successfully guided the discipline throughout most of the 20th century, is no longer a reliable guide. Its vision of biology now realized, the molecular paradigm has run its course. Biology, therefore, has a choice to make, between the comfortable path of continuing to follow molecular biology's lead or the more invigorating one of seeking a new and inspiring vision of the living world, one that addresses the major problems in biology that 20th century biology, molecular biology, could not handle and, so, avoided. The former course, though highly productive, is certain to turn biology into an engineering discipline. The latter holds the promise of making biology an even more fundamental science, one that, along with physics, probes and defines the nature of reality. This is a choice between a biology that solely does society's bidding and a biology that is society's teacher.

* Mailing address: Department of Microbiology, University of Illinois, 601 S. Goodwin, Urbana, IL 61801. Phone: (217) 333-9369. Fax: (217) 244-6697. E-mail: carl@ninja.life.uiuc.edu.

+++++

PDF gratuito do artigo aqui.

+++++

NOTA IMPERTINENTE DESTE BLOGGER:

Biologia tipo 'engenharia'? Design Inteligente??? Fui, nem sei por que, pensando qual a desculpa, oops, teoria ad hoc que a Nomenklatura científica irá acolher para salvar a cara de Darwin. Uma teoria da evolução do século 19, remendada, oops recauchutada no século 20 com o genética mendeliana (conservadora???) e as mutações filtradas aleatoriamente pela seleção natural, deverá dar lugar à Síntese Evolutiva Ampliada que, segundo as más línguas, não deve ser selecionista.

A seleção natural se virou e disse para Darwin: "A evolução é muita areia epistêmica para o meu caminhãozinho..."