Science mag special issue on Cellular Signalling

No doubt this will be of interest to members of the list, and it is
relevant to several of the current and forthcoming
papers. I would suggest that it is interesting to check empirical cases in
order to see how much the signalling idea really does any work over and
above that of a simple causal chain. I would assume that the difference
depends on the use of one causal chain to modulate another (generally,
involving feed forward or feedback). Although I agree with the recent
suggestion that typically small energy differences are used to control
large energy differences, I suspect that this difference in relative energy
levels is not definitive of control, being neither necessary nor
sufficient. A lot of the examples in the Science volume involve energy
differences that are in the same range.

John

"This joint Special Issue by Science's Signal Transduction Knowledge
Environment (STKE) and Science presents important developments in the
sprawling field of signal transduction. (Signal transduction refers to the
processes by which cells perceive their environment or internal status and
react to such stimuli with appropriate physiological responses.) The
Viewpoints in this issue of Science provide authoritative syntheses that
are accessible to the nonspecialist, explaining what a signaling pathway
does and why it does it. Furthermore, this issue highlights new ways in
which Science's STKE is working with authors to efficiently convey complex
information. At Science's STKE , readers can delve deeper into the topic
and take advantage of special electronic features, particularly the
"Connections Map" database in which the details of the signaling pathway
are dynamically displayed and annotated. (STKE is the first of a series of
Knowledge Environments published by AAAS. These electronic publications
gather a comprehensive set of resources to enhance access to information in
a fast-moving field like cell signaling.)"

SCIENCE, Volume 296, Issue 5573, Mapping Cellular Signaling
dated May 31 2002, is now available at:

         http://www.sciencemag.org/content/vol296/issue5573/index.shtml

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Dr John Collier john.collier@kla.univie.ac.at
Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research
Adolf Lorenz Gasse 2 +432-242-32390-19
A-3422 Altenberg Austria Fax: 242-32390-4
http://www.kli.ac.at/research.html?personal/collier
Received on Fri May 31 14:42:28 2002