The result of a mathematical development should be continuously checked against one’s own intuition about what constitutes reasonable biological behavior. When such a check reveals disagreement, then the following possibilities must be considered: A mistake has been made in the formal mathematical development; The starting assumptions are incorrect and/or constitute a too drastic oversimplification; One’s own intuition about the biological field is inadequately developed; A penetrating new principle has been discovered. —HARVEY J. GOLD, Mathematical Modeling of Biological Systems
