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		3.1.1— The Big Picture

		Four centuries ago, Newton showed that mathematical descriptions give us insight into the nature of things. However, our mathematics has been mostly limited to simple systems with linear interactions. This corresponds to systems with few pieces that do not interact strongly with each other.

		Since we have not had the tools to do anything else, we analyzed the world as if it consisted of systems with these properties. But the world, especially the world of living things, is not at all like this. The living world is filled with systems that have many pieces that interact strongly with each other.

		Only now are we beginning to develop the appropriate tools to analyze the real world of systems with many strongly interacting pieces. These tools give us a dictionary of examples of what to expect from our experiments and how we should think about our systems. Our vision is only as broad as the different examples that we have assembled in our dictionary.

 

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