life inspired

"Cell-signaling pathways are often presumed to convert just the level of an external stimulus to response. However, in contexts such as the immune system or rapidly developing embryos, cells plausibly have to make rapid decisions based on limited information. [...] We show that common genetic circuits have the potential to approach the theoretical optimal performance. [...] The complex but reversible protein modifications that accompany signaling thus have the potential to perform analog computations." Full paper @ PNAS