Table of Contents

Part I Reductionism: the human genome project and the genomics revolution; in theory and in practice; what is it that makes something living?; a very short primer on modern biology; the uncertainties; the meanings of reductionism - the large and the small of it. Part II Two witnesses examine the cell; life as a self-organizing system; epistemon and eudoxus. Part III Process and mechanism: the reductionist experimental program for the study of living systems; a real life parable; the lesson; the making of a paradigm; the experiments; to be parallel or non-parallel; the tests; the call to authority.