IUBio

The immune system is dead! Long live the immune system!

J. Ricks jricks at u.washington.edu
Fri Feb 4 18:42:40 EST 2000


Of course science progresses by building on the ruins of earlier models.
Kinda cool.

I'm not sure that the two models offered are really that different.  It's
not necessarily a good idea to anthropomorphize the immune system by
giving it "intent."  It is an evolved system that does what it does.  What
all can it do and how does it do it, and what can go wrong ?  

The system has evolved to deal with BOTH bugs and with internal "messes."

Let's not forget the idea that the immune system is also part of a
neuro-endocrine-immune system that works to maintain homeostasis.  All of
the systems had to evolve together.

JR





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