especially for overcoming diseases, where therapeutic targets can be
developed to control specific biochemical aberrations. Biochemical
network studies are also useful for understanding the origins of life,
as there have been several studies that have reproduced complex
biological properties using simple models, for example, the genera-
tion of self-organized animal skin patterns using Alan Turing’s
reaction-diffusion equations (see Subheading 5)[2]. However,
since there are trillions of possible combinatorial molecular inter-
actions with a large number of biochemicals within a cell, it is an
overwhelming task to interpret cellular responses in every aspect or
in entirety. Therefore, it is conceivable and necessary that a reduc-
tionist approach to investigating functional aspects of living systems
is taken.
The reductionist view, although is meant to simplify complex-
ities, can still be very useful. In aerospace science, the Navier-Stokes
equations highly simplify the macroscopic streamline flow of air and
do not take into account fluctuations or turbulence at the micro-
scopic scales. However, it breaks down under highly turbulent
conditions where aircraft are difficult to control, and at supersonic
speeds where thermal heating becomes a challenge. Nevertheless,
modeling the airflow using the Navier-Stokes equations has been
fundamental for the design of modern airplanes that travel at less
than the speed of sound, and has been widely adopted by theFig. 1Molecular species from cells, tissues, and organs are biochemically inter-connected through large-
scale networks. Figure adapted from [1]
172 Kumar Selvarajoo