Economist.com: :RNA | Really New Advances
All that was worked out decades ago. Since then, RNA has been more or less neglected as a humble carrier of messages and fetcher of building materials. This account of the cell was so satisfying to biologists that few bothered to look beyond it. But they are looking now. For, suddenly, cells seem to be full of RNA doing who-knows-what.
Another cellular signaling system is emerging based on observations of microRNA transcription. Another layer in the onion of biology.
Many years ago, as the complexity of intracellular signaling based on G-Protein coupled receptors, PI and cyclic nucleotides was being described, I wrote in a book chapter that it was as if the network complexity that exists in the neuroanatomy of brain was being mirrored inside each neuron, with branching, cross-talking, diverging and converging pathways. I’m no longer surprised, as this is the nature of complex systems and their networks.
My more recent insight is that the really interesting behavior of all of these complex systems is emergent, meaning that it can’t be deduced no matter how well one understands the behavior of the individual components and their behavior. It’s not hopeless as one does not have to know how aspirin works in order to use it. You have to know when and where to look for the effects, which is where knowledge of mechanism provides leverage for system knowledge at a higher level.