"It is usually admitted that an organism is determined by its genetic information. In other words, the relationship between the genotype and the phenotype is strictly deterministic. However, it appears that this model does not explain several biological findings like the occurrence of complex genetic disorders. This book explores a new hypothesis on the relationship between genotype and phenotype. Here, the genotype provides only a number of possibilities more or less probable. On these bases, the organism realized itself, choosing among all the current possibilities. This idea is developed and discussed in the context of our current knowledge on complex genetic diseases, phenotypic plasticity, canalization, instinct, heredity and evolution. The book will interest biologists, geneticists, epistemologists, and medical scientists"--