Introduction: Issues About Robustness in the Practice of Biological Sciences

Abstract

Robustness has lately become a bridging notion, in particular across the sciences of the natural and the artificial, crucial for prediction and control of natural and artificial systems in recent scientific practice, in biomedicine, neurobiology and engineering, as well as for risk management, planning and policy in ecology, healthcare, markets and economy. From biological, neurological and societal systems, arising by the interplay of self-organizing dynamics and environmental pressures, to the current sophisticated engineering that aims at artificially reproducing the adaptability and resilience of living systems in front of perturbations in man-made devices, robustness seems to hold the key for orchestrating stability and change. This introduction offers a general survey of the contribution that the notion of robustness is providing to reframing major concepts within the life sciences, such as development, evolution, time and environment, and to reframing the relationship between biology and engineering, as well as between biology and physics.