{"id":20952,"date":"2026-10-10T10:16:22","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T10:16:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/?p=20952"},"modified":"2026-10-10T10:16:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T10:16:22","slug":"how-does-life-unfold-a-landscape-metaphor-comes-into-its-own","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/?p=20952","title":{"rendered":"How Does Life Unfold? A Landscape Metaphor Comes Into Its Own."},"content":{"rendered":"

AI-rewritten:<\/strong> This is a summary of an article from Quanta Magazine, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story.<\/p>\n

Quanta Magazine • Philip Ball • October 9, 2026<\/strong><\/div>\n\n

By the mid-20th century, biology seemed solved thanks to Charles Darwin’s evolution theory and genetics, which explained how genes passed from parents to offspring create variations for natural selection to act upon. However, British biologist Conrad Hal Waddington questioned how genes actually shape an organism’s physical form during embryonic development. He proposed a new picture where the developmental process is like a landscape with hills and valleys.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Waddington visualized early embryonic cells as a ball at the top of a hill. As these cells progress toward becoming specific types like skin or nerve cells, they roll downhill through this landscape. When the path splits, gravity pulls the cell down one track, forcing it to differentiate into a mature type. Waddington described this process as "canalization," where cells are trapped and channeled by the sides of the valley, ensuring reliable outcomes from many genes.<\/p>\n

For decades, scientists viewed this metaphor as useful but lacking physical reality because it had no mathematical content. Researchers could not distinguish between alternative mechanisms or make quantitative predictions based on the image alone. It was considered a schematic rather than a meaningful explanation of the actual biological process occurring inside living organisms.<\/p>\n

In recent years, researchers have mapped cell-state spaces using data from thousands of cells, revealing that development is a dynamic process of mutual negotiation. This cartography helps scientists understand how identical cells become distinct tissues. James Briscoe notes that knowing where bifurcations lie allows for designing methods to steer cell populations with precision. Waddington’s landscape metaphor remains valuable as it points toward system-level properties that cannot be read off from any single gene.<\/p>\n

\n

Source:<\/strong> Quanta Magazine • Philip Ball • October 9, 2026<\/p>\n

Read the original article at Quanta Magazine →<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AI-rewritten: This is a summary of an article from Quanta Magazine, rewritten by AI (Qwen, running locally) to make it easier to read. The facts come from the original article – read it for the full story. Quanta Magazine • Philip Ball • October 9, 2026 By the mid-20th century, biology seemed solved thanks to<\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20952\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.theck1.no\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}