Nobel laureate Sydney Brenner famously said that all problems in biology are versions of three basic questions: How does it work? How is it built? How did it get that way?
I’m both pleased and excited, to be one of the members of the Scientific Advisory Panel for the Centre. My background is a bit like the infinitesimal model, in that I know a very tiny amount about a large number of things, resulting in a modest overall variance. I’m a Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Arizona, with adjunct appointments in the Departments of Plant Sciences, Animal Sciences, and Molecular and Cellular Biology. I’m also an adjunct in the College of Public Health and on the graduate interdisciplinary programs in Genetics, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, and Insect Science (the latter as I’m an avid moth collector, having described roughly two dozen species, with three moths named after me).
What connects all these seeming disparate interests – and what also meshes very nicely into the goals of the Centre – is a deep interest in Biology (with a Capital B). While Brenner’s comments stress the commonality of basic biological questions, this view is both correct, but also misleading in its scope. This amazing and indescribably complex phenomena we call life is like a crystal with essentially an endless number of facets to examine. One could take some feature of interest and focus on how it works: development, physiology, molecular biology, mathematics of gene switches and complex networks, and so on. Each facet of looking at the “how it works” common question offers its own unique insight, but, like our mythical crystal, it is only by stepping back and admiring as many of these brilliant shiny facets as we can that gives us (at least a hint) of life. Consider the facet of phylogeny: one could gaze into the evolutionary connections (branching patterns) that describe a group of species/taxa. This is a fascinating question in its own right, but with such a branching pattern in hand, it can also aid studies on other facets. For example, we expect species that are close to share at least some features. Hence, one could potentially extrapolate known properties from one Gum tree to its sister species, or from one landrace of sorghum to another closely related one. Of even more interest is when the features of two overwise seemingly close taxa are rather different, as this is the setting where considerable insight into a variety of work/built/get-that-way questions is likely hiding.
Learning to not just think “outside of the box”, but rather to roam over as much of the crystal of life as possible, is the goal of the Centre. Even the most exceptional senior investigators are still somewhat canalized in their thinking. This is a natural feature of how scientists have historically been trained, as well as a feature of human nature. We generally try to work on things with which we are comfortable, which is largely a product of past training. What I find most exciting about the Centre is that it offers a potential incubator for graduate students and early career investigators to be more fluid, and less canalized, in thinking deeply about the problems they are considering. This requires being bold, being wrong, being perplexed and feeling at a loss, and having a deep worry that there are concepts you could never master. In short, those feeling we all had as a first year graduate student, or post-doc, or even as a faculty member. One of my faculty mentors told me that “You can never answer the questions that you don’t ask”. So my advice to all in the Centre is to indeed ask! Really interesting questions will seem frustrating and unending, but as Monod said “chance favors the prepared mind”. In trying to address one question, new insights into other questions you might not have ever considered are there to be found, if you are looking broadly, admiring as much of the crystal as you can, rather than focusing on how pretty one (or two) facets appear.
I’ll close my short comments with one life lesson. Many (too many!) times I have felt lost in some problem or concept, and about to move onto something else. However, the mind is a deeply powerful background processor, organizing ideas, facts, and concepts when we focus on something else. I like to think about the story of the German Chemist August Kekule’ who was at a complete loss in trying to understand the basic carbon structures in many organic molecules. Then he had a strange dream about a snake eating its own tail, leading to the concept of benzene rings as a foundational building block. On a much less dramatic scale, I’m surprised how often concepts that seems hard and intractable upon first introduction later turn out be obvious and intuitive. The problems you are addressing are hard, especially if they are interesting, but keep an open mind, don’t be afraid to be challenged, and especially be bold in thinking beyond just a few facets. Great findings await!
Bruce Walsh
Science Advisory Panel Member and Professor at The University of Arizona
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