Evidence map›Paper›PMID 26864893›Full record

ReviewJournal of the Royal Society, Interface2016

From the primordial soup to self-driving cars: standards and their role in natural and technological innovation.

Andreas Wagner, Scott Ortman, Robert Maxfield

Open access · bronzeAbstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Journal of the Royal Society, Interface, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
0.7field-weighted citation impact, top 26% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed, 9 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Innovation: an emerging focus from cells to societies.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2017
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 1 institution in 2 countries.

Andreas WagnerInstitute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA andreas.wagner@ieu.uzh.ch.
Scott OrtmanSanta Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA.
Robert MaxfieldSanta Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA.
Santa Fe Institute · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Standards are specifications to which the elements of a technology must conform. Here, we apply this notion to the biochemical 'technologies' of nature, where objects like DNA and proteins, as well as processes like the regulation of gene activity are highly standardized. We introduce the concept of standards with multiple examples, ranging from the ancient genetic material RNA, to Palaeolithic stone axes, and digital electronics, and we discuss common ways in which standards emerge in nature and technology. We then focus on the question of how standards can facilitate technological and biological innovation. Innovation-enhancing standards include those of proteins and digital electronics. They share common features, such as that few standardized building blocks can be combined through standard interfaces to create myriad useful objects or processes. We argue that such features will also characterize the most innovation-enhancing standards of future technologies.

Indexed as

DNAOrigin of LifeProteinsRNAAnimalsHumansDNAProteinsRNAevolutioninnovationtechnology

Identifiers

PMID26864893
PMCPMC4780566
OpenAlexW2322795812

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.