It is clear to all, after a moments thought, that nature has much we might be inspired by when designing our systems, for example: robustness, adaptability and complexity, to name a few. The implementation of bioinspired systems in hardware has however been limited, and more often than not been more a matter of artistry than engineering. The reasons for this are many, but one of the main proble...

if a simplified GRN (sGRN) is found in axolotl, an amphibian with primitive traits. We found that a simpler network does exist in the axolotl, with only one Mix type and two Nodal genes identified. Using morpholinos targeted to disrupt splicing, we demonstrate a single Nodal gene is required for the formation of the mesoderm and endoderm. The phenotype we observe recapitulates that seen in Xeno...

It has been postulated that chromatin modifications can persist through mitosis and meiosis, thereby securing memory of transcriptional states. Whether these chromatin marks can self-propagate in progeny independently of relevant trans-acting factors is an important question in phenomena related to epigenesis. "Adaptive cellular memory" displayed by yeast cells offers a convenient system to add...

Once upon a time, about thirty years ago, there were two species of developmental biologists. The first of these were the experimentalists. These had been around for more than a hundred years and had descended from predecessors such as Boveri, Morgan and Spemann. In attempting to understand the awesome complexity and reliability of development, they developed explanations verging on vitalism. T...

Professor Pieter Nieuwkoop has made numerous contributions to amphibian embryology over the past 40 years. These include his formulation of the normal table of Xenopus development, the analysis of regional aspects of neural induction, the discovery and analysis of mesoderm induction, the discovery of the inductive formation of germ cells in urodeles, studies of the cytoplasmic organization of e...

The paper argues against the central dogma and its interpretation by C. Kenneth Waters and Alex Rosenberg. I argue that certain phenomena in the regulation of gene expression provide a break with the central dogma, according to which sequence specificity for a gene product must be template derived. My thesis of 'molecular epigenesis' with its three classes of phenomena, sequence 'activation', '...

The implementation of bio-inspired systems in hardware has traditionally been more a matter of artistry than of method. The reasons are multiple, but one of the main problems has always been the lack of a universal platform, of a standardized architecture, and of a proper methodology for the implementation of such systems. The ideas presented in this article are the first results of a new resea...