Spüre die Welt. This is the second post in our “phenotypic atomism series”, trying to explain how we can gauge the amount of information that phenotypes provide. However, let me start by going very far back. As a graduation gift, my high school teachers gave me a book that set me on the path of becoming a neuroscientist – the User Illusion by Tor Nørretranders, a book that has a more poetic title in its German translation (“Perceive the world”). This book examined the inner workings of human consciousness and explored how our human brains process information. Now, more than 20 years later, I am encountering the idea of measuring information again when trying to understand what phenotypic information is meaningful and how we can assess this. This is a blog post on how we can describe the value of phenotypic information, the importance of time, and how we slowly chip away at the mystery of developmental phenotypes. To put it differently: “Show me the longitudinal information content (IC) for absence seizures – it is going to be U-shaped and you have 60 min.” Continue reading →