ABSTRACT
Biochemistry attempts to understand and control physiological events through detailed studies of the chemical constituents of living matter. The most frequent, classical modus operandi of biochemistry is reductionistic. It calls for a reduction of a macroscopic system to the elemental structures and properties of its microscopic constituents, with the hope that detailed information about all parts would lead to comprehension of the functioning as a whole. It is becoming increasingly apparent that this reductionistic approach, while being extremely successful in its own right, does not suffice to decipher the internal logic of complex biochemical systems. Knowledge of the properties of enzymes, proteins, and other metabolites alone is not sufficient to explain organismic functioning, because interactions among the biochemical constituents lead to systemic behaviors that are not evident, or not even existent, in any of the constituents themselves. Even a very detailed analysis of all glycolytic enzymes and metabolites in isolation is not likely to predict or explain the regular oscillations that have often been observed in glycolysis (Goldbeter 1996).
