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Return to E-mail Discussion page Previous in threadNext in thread 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 |
