Central Dogma, Part-Dieu

​Start on the top right, with sperm competition leading to fertilization. The zygote, at first embedded in the uterine lining, grows and eventually develops freedom. The world "hands" the organism 0's and 1's, even from the womb, representing the informational entropy of a given series of environmental measurements - the prognosticators, predictors, and patterns of electromagnetic radiation, pH, temperature, blood glucose, emotional satisfaction, etc, etc, etc...*

Having a philosophically-equal say in the protein signalling cascades that produce cellular physiology are the maternal effects (triangle and circle obtained from Mommy [who may have gotten it from her Mommy {who may have gotten it from her Mommy}]) and environmental effects (triangle and circle obtained from life events). The signaling cascades culminate (or does they begin?) in the genome, where the quantum spaghetti of chromatin is represented by the famous "Twin Slit" experiment on electron non-duality. Stochasticity is at the heart of all good inference, and gene regulation is no exception. The chromosomes are separating in a process known as mitotic anaphase - one of the most well-choreographed dances in the biological repertoire. Some cells will never divide again. Other cells savor a brief moment to bask in the fitness-gasm, then begin the process of dividing again. 

In any case, the chromatin genome of the cell (often mistakenly understood to consist of only DNA) is represented to you on the middle-right as it is to as third-grader, or as it is to a high-schooler in AP Biology, or as it is to an introductory genetics student in University. That is: the textbook neglect of philosophical ideas about the genome, the "obvious" delimitation of the genome from the environment, and the won't you just please save your questions for grad school?

Next, transcriptional products, often containing RNA, escape the nucleus. The  two ribosomes are chugging along a palindromic protein-coding gene, translating a partially-folded protein. The bottom left shows a close-up of the statistical surface boundaries that specify the action of a peptide. Waves of organized water form concentric shells around the hydrophilic parts of the protein - a molecular partner-yoga that contorts the peptide into new and exotic positions. The watery oxygens are on Hajj to kiss the fabled nitrogenous lone pairs of the mysterious peptide backbone!

At last, The proteins fold, assemble, and meta-assemble, to form phenotype (shaped like a synapse). The bottom-center of the synapse represents the "external" sensory arrays (the Eye), and the "internal" sensory arrays (the I). The interplay between Eye and I defines "behavior" - that is, what we measure or infer an organism to do. The teleological goal of behavior is reproduction, demonstrated by the creation of armies of sperm, already eating through the oocyte's mucusy acrosome. 

And so it begins again.

* In 2016 I was thinking about this