  In computer science, we can theoretically neatly separate transmission and
processing of information, hardware and software, and programs and their
inputs. This is much more intricate in biology, Nevertheless, I argue that
Shannon's concept of information is useful in biology, although its application
is not as straightforward as many people think. In fact, the recently developed
theory of information decomposition can shed much light on the complementarity
between coding and regulatory, or internal and environmental information. The
key challenge that we formulate in this contribution is to understand how
genetic information and external factors combine to create an organism, and
conversely, how the genome has learned in the course of evolution how to
harness the environment, and analogously, how coding, regulation and spatial
organization interact in cellular processes.
