Model

Many a future engineer grew enamored as a child with model trains, model planes, or model cars. The best such models fascinate because they appear so realistic, down to the last detail.

To a working engineer, on the other hand, a model is an abstract, simplified representation of the object they want to build. It does not capture all the attributes of the thing it represents, but only the relevant ones.

In biology, the word “model” can also refer to an abstract, simplified representation. For example, a diagram of a cellular process may capture only the key molecules and cellular components involved. But a model can also be shorthand for what biologists call model organisms—a species of microbe or non-human animal that lets them easily study a biological process in the lab. Biologists choose model organisms for two reasons. They’re relatively easy to study, compared to larger animals or humans, and the researchers expect that they’ll be able to extrapolate the discoveries from the fruit fly or mouse or rat to humans.