Linux Versus E. coli

“Linux bears an uncanny resemblance to the genes in a living
cell. Many genes make proteins that act as switches for other
genes. The proteins clamp onto DNA near a target gene, allowing the
cell to read the gene and make a new protein. And that new protein
may, in turn, grab onto many other genes. Thanks to this hierarchy
of switches, cells can respond to changes in their environment and
quickly carry out complex behaviors, such as reorganizing
themselves to feed on a new kind of food.

“A number of scientists have begun to compare natural and
manmade networks. A lot of the same rules appear to be at work in
the growth of the Internet, airport connections, brain wiring,
ecosystem food webs, and gene networks. But very often, scientists
are finding, it’s the differences between natural and manmade
networks that are most revealing, offering clues to the different
ways in which people and evolution build complex things.

“In the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this
week, Koon-Kiu Yang of Yale and his colleagues present the first
detailed comparison of Linux’s network to a gene network. (The
paper will be here.) Thanks to the open-source nature of Linux, the
scientists could look at every line of code in every version of the
system over the past two decades, from Torvald’s first primitive
stab to its current sophisticated form.”

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