https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-math-that-tells-cells-what-they-are
Really interesting article with quite a bit of work I hadn’t been exposed to. The tl;dr is that the traditional view of embryonic development is that organisms develop along a strictly linear pathway dictated by DNA, instead it looks like RNA expression gradients guide development. This is interesting in context of work which has found that most cells are generalizable, e.g. we can roll back epithelial cells or astrocytes back to a pluripotent state with the right combination and amount of protein manipulation. It’s an interesting take on the question why don’t mutations completely break development?
Absolutely love this quote:
“But the question always remained open: Does the biology actually care?” Gregor said. “Or is this just something that we measure?”
Just something we measure because that’s all our tools measure is a pretty huge problem.