  The recent discovery of universal principles underlying many complex networks
occurring across a wide range of length scales in the biological world has
spurred physicists in trying to understand such features using techniques from
statistical physics and non-linear dynamics. In this paper, we look at a few
examples of biological networks to see how similar questions can come up in
very different contexts. We review some of our recent work that looks at how
network structure (e.g., its connection topology) can dictate the nature of its
dynamics, and conversely, how dynamical considerations constrain the network
structure. We also see how networks occurring in nature can evolve to modular
configurations as a result of simultaneously trying to satisfy multiple
structural and dynamical constraints. The resulting optimal networks possess
hubs and have heterogeneous degree distribution similar to those seen in
biological systems.
