Carl Woese, professor de microbiologia na Universidade de Illinois, Estados Unidos, escreveu sobre o que ele considerava o desafio da biologia no século 21:
"O sucesso da biologia molecular ao longo do último século veio somente de olhar para certos problemas que a biologia propõe (o gene e a natureza da célula) e considerá-los a partir de um ponto de vista puramente reducionista. Isso produziu uma colheita surpreendente. Os outros problemas, a evolução e a natureza da forma biológica, a biologia molecular preferiu ignorar, ou falhando totalmente em reconhecê-los, ou desconsiderando-os como inconsequentes, como acidentes históricos, fundamentalmente inexplicáveis e irrelevantes ao nosso entendimento de biologia. Agora, isso deve ser motivo para se parar. [*]
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* "Molecular biology's success over the last century has come solely from looking at certain ones of the problems biology poses (the gene and the nature of the cell) and looking at them from a purely reductionist point of view. It has produced an astounding harvest. The other problems,evolution and the nature of biological form, molecular biology chose to ignore, either failing outright to recognize them or dismissing them as inconsequential, as historical accidents, fundamentally inexplicable and irrelevant to our understanding of biology. Now, this should be cause for pause". in A New Biology for a New Century.
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A New Biology for a New Century
Carl R. Woese*
Department of Microbiology, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois 61801
SUMMARY
INTRODUCTION
THE MOLECULAR ERA IN THE BIGGER PICTURE
Reductionism versus Reductionism
Synthesis
TOWARDS A NEW REPRESENTATION OF BIOLOGY
CHANGING THE OVERVIEW
SOME PERTINENT HISTORY
THE PANDORA'S BOX OF MICROBIOLOGY
The Dismantling of Bacteriology and a Deconstruction of the Procaryote
Other Guesswork Solutions?
CELLULAR EVOLUTION: THE BUMPY ROAD TO WHO KNOWS WHERE
THE DYNAMICS OF CELLULAR EVOLUTION
The Key to Understanding the Character of HGT
From There to Here
An Interesting, if Not Relevant, Aside
When Is a Tree Not a Tree?
ONE LAST LOOK
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
REFERENCES
SUMMARY
References
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.
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NOTA CAUSTICANTE DESTE BLOGGER:
Alô MEC/SEMTEC/PNLEM não dá mais para continuar engabelando os alunos de Biologia do ensino médio com livros didáticos que contêm duas fraudes e várias evidências distorcidas a favor do fato, Fato, FATO da evolução quando os especialistas de renome estão discutindo se isso se corrobora no contexto de justificação teórica. Parece que ainda há controvérsias sobre o fato, Fato, FATO da evolução...
Ministro Fernando Haddad: 171 epistêmico com aval do MEC? Durma-se com um barulho desses! Pereça tal pensamento! Mas que está na hora de podar esses livros didáticos, ah, isso está!
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