Will Scott Bakula Take the Quantum Leap with Biology?

When Newtonian physics was replaced with relativity and quantum mechanics, many people weren't able to keep up, says the Guardian's Robin McKie at the Notes & Theories blog. Now Paul Nurse says biology is facing a similar change from the commonsense to the "incomprehensible." The "simplicity" of biology which explains how genes work and how bacteria and viruses cause disease is about to be replaced by a more complex study of how the body processes information, how cells communicate with each other, and how homeostasis works, McKie says. Nurse adds that looking into these networks will show "a strange, counterintuitive world" that will change the way biology is studied, but that the step is necessary for learning the way nature works.