I like Brian's summary of fundamental principles of biology - they complement the physics principles very well. This is exactly what I have in mind: A collection of ideas that are not just isolated facts, but are overarching principles from various sciences, built up from a wide range of experiments and theory. The long-term plan for this is to put together a framework of such ideas, as a guide to the important principles of science that might be valuable to people searching for "meaning." Once we have this framework in place, we can attach links to resources and tutorials designed to help people understand these insights (including the processes and the evidence which led to the insights.)

I'm working on a sketch of this - I'll put a draft up on the web soon, as something to build from.

Thanks,
Todd
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>From: mcspadde@mail.wsu.edu (Brian B. McSpadden Gardener)
>To: "Todd Duncan" <duncan@scienceintegration.org>
>Subject: Re: key insights from science
>Date: Thu, Jan 13, 2000, 4:38 PM
>
> When I was a first-year graduate student (some time ago), I had the
> opprotunity to learn how to use a slide maker and proceeded to develop a
> brief seminar for friends about FuPoBs (Fundamental Principles of Biology).
> At the time, I was (mistakenly?) under the impression that while physics
> and chemistry had well described "natural laws" no one had truly outlined a
> verifiable set of fundamental laws (or principles) of biology. At the time
> it caused a bit of a stir, because the idea seemed to crystallize the
> differences between the ecologists who wanted to look holistically at
> complex (chaotic?) systems and the molecular biologists who wanted to
> determine the nature of the life by determining gene function. Stuck
> somewhere in the middle were several ideas which all could agree contained
> some element of fact, but which were discounted because they did not follow
> the paradigms of either camp. I offer them here as a starting point for
> discussion on the key insights of biology which Todd would like to
> identify.
>
> Definitions:
> 1. Unit life is composed of delimited, self-assembing/replicating systems
> that reorganize matter and energy at the molecular level.
>
> 2. Life systems are agglomerations of unit life forms and have emergent
> properties.
>
> 3. Evolution is the change of life systems over time, while mutation is the
> change of unit life.
>
> Principles:
> 1. Changes in life systems follow from stochastic mutations in unit life.
>
> 2. Life is subject to constraints at both the unit and system levels.
>
> 3. Increases in complexity of units and systems require concominant
> increases in matter and energy.
>
> 4. Complexity increases with time within the constraints imposed over time.
>
> While the buzz words of modern biology (ecosystems, Darwinism, genomics,
> etc) are absent, the concepts are embedded in this framework. And, unlike
> the misapplication of those lesser (?) ideas to human societies, the above
> principles lead to rather humbling but exciting predictions about the life
> system known as humanity. And isn't that a fundamental driving force in
> our search for knowledge?
> I would welcom any comments and criticisms on this framework, and I would
> challenge someone to restructure the fundamentals / key insights from other
> disciplines into a parallel framework.
>
> Dr. Brian McSpadden Gardener
> USDA-ARS Root Disease and Biological Control Unit
> Washington State University
> Pullman, WA 99164
> (509) 335 1116
> (509) 335 7674 FAX