Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33211276›Full record

ArticleTheory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften2020

Biological information.

Jürgen Jost

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Theory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
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

3 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Reflections on physiology and modelling.Experimental physiology · 2025
    Article
  2. Biology, geometry and information.Theory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften · 2022
    Article
  3. Information transmission in a two-step cascade: interplay of activation and repression.Theory in biosciences = Theorie in den Biowissenschaften · 2021
    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

1 author.

Jürgen JostMax Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences, Leipzig, Germany. jost@mis.mpg.de.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5258-6590

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

In computer science, we can theoretically neatly separate transmission and processing of information, hardware and software, and programs and their inputs. This is much more intricate in biology. Nevertheless, I argue that Shannon's concept of information is useful in biology, although its application is not as straightforward as many people think. In fact, the recently developed theory of information decomposition can shed much light on the complementarity between coding and regulatory, or internal and environmental information. The key challenge that we formulate in this contribution is to understand how genetic information and external factors combine to create an organism, and conversely how the genome has learned in the course of evolution how to harness the environment, and analogously how coding, regulation and spatial organization interact in cellular processes.

Indexed as

GenomeSoftwareHumansLearningCoding vs. regulatory informationGenetic information and environmentInformationInformation decomposition

Identifiers

PMID33211276
PMCPMC7719155

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
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.