How far can stochastic and deterministic views be reconciled?

Abstract

In this short note, we try to provide the reader with a brief pedagogical account of some similarities and differences between stochastic and deterministic processes. A short presentation of some basic notions related to the mathematical description of stochastic processes is also given. Our main aim is to illustrate the somehow surprising fact that the gap between the behaviour of stochastic and deterministic processes might, from a practical perspective, be much smaller than a priori expected.

8 pages, pedagogical note, proceedings of the conference "Chance at the Heart of the Cell" (Lyon, November 2011), to appear in Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology