Agreed, and, for the record (as someone who's worked on modelling at various scales) I didn't for a second want to detract from this achievement - it really is incredible, and, as per usual, the discussion here shows that the HN community is more than au fait with the implicit assumptions made.
Also, and this is something I personally feel very strongly about, the paper is incredibly well written and accessible. There is no point making science difficult to understand. Science is (itself) not difficult - it's complicated, encompassing, and confusing, but nothing is actually difficult. There is a trend to use big words and complex language in scientific papers, which I worry must be incredibly off-putting for those less used to them, and are almost always totally unnecessary. This paper was just beautiful (I devoured it on my subway ride home) and certainly one I'll be recommending to friends interested in the systems biology field.
Also, and this is something I personally feel very strongly about, the paper is incredibly well written and accessible. There is no point making science difficult to understand. Science is (itself) not difficult - it's complicated, encompassing, and confusing, but nothing is actually difficult. There is a trend to use big words and complex language in scientific papers, which I worry must be incredibly off-putting for those less used to them, and are almost always totally unnecessary. This paper was just beautiful (I devoured it on my subway ride home) and certainly one I'll be recommending to friends interested in the systems biology field.