Understandable Complexity
Jörg Stelling*
Institute of Computational Science, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland.
Review and commentary on
An Introduction to Systems Biology: Design Principles of Biological Circuits, by Uri Alon (Chapman & Hall/CRC, Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton, FL, 2006), 301 pp., ISBN: 1-58488-642-0.
Abstract:
The field of systems biology has received considerable attention lately, but it is not easy to define or to enter. The book An Introduction to Systems Biology: Design Principles of Biological Circuits by Uri Alon greatly facilitates both. In particular, it combines fundamental concepts on biological networks with an introduction to their formal analysis, using a wide array of biological examples. The books intention is not to cover everything about systems biologyrather, it provides an original, pointed, and very intelligible essence of the field.
*Corresponding author. E-mail: joerg.stelling{at}inf.ethz.ch