Wikipedia - Human Ecology
Field of reference: Ecology
Description: Nature takes care of everything.
“The ecosystems of planet Earth are coupled to human environments. Ecosystems regulate the global geophysical cycles of energy, climate, soil nutrients, and water that in turn support and grow natural capital (including the environmental, physiological, cognitive, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of life). Ultimately, every manufactured product in human environments comes from natural systems.[25] Ecosystems are consideredcommon-pool resources because ecosystems do not exclude beneficiaries and they can be depleted or degraded."
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Wikipedia - Statistical mechanics / Thermodynamic free energy
Field of reference: Physics
Description: A closed physical system is governed by a single law: the second law of thermodynamics, which can be stated as the non-decreasing entropy (i.e. non-decreasing complexity) of the physical system as it progresses from state to state (i.e. evolves with time). Every physical system will fall into its minimum energy state while tend to increase its entropy, two (generally conflicting) inclinations. The ultimate system's equilibrium is a "compromise" between the two, i.e. the equilibrium state of the system minimizes the "free energy" rather than the "energy" of the physical system.
“Since the second law of thermodynamics applies to isolated systems, the first case investigated will correspond to this case. The microcanonical ensemble describes an isolated system. The entropy of such a system can only increase, so that the maximum of its entropy corresponds to an equilibrium state for the system."
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Dr. Fritjof Capra
Field of reference: Biology, Ecology
Description: Symbiosis, is so widespread throughout the living world that it has to be considered a central aspect of life.
“Similar patterns of coordination exist in tightly knit animal societies of higher complexity. Extreme examples are the social insects - bees, wasps, ants, termites, and others - that form colonies whose members are interdependent and in such close contact that the whole system resembles a large, multicreatured organism. Bees and ants are unable to survive in isolation, but in great numbers they act almost like the cells of a complex organism with a collective intelligence and capabilities for adaptation far superior to those of its individual members. This phenomenon of animals joining up to form larger organismic systems is not limited to insects but can also be observed in several other species, including, of course, the human species. Close coordination of activities exists not only among individuals of the same species but also among different species, and again the resulting living systems have the characteristics of single organisms. Many types of organisms that were thought to represent well-defined biological species have turned out, upon close examination, to consist of two or more different species in intimate biological association. This phenomenon, known as symbiosis, is so widespread throughout the living world that it has to be considered a central aspect of life. Symbiotic relationships are mutually advantageous to the associated partners, and they involve animals, plants, and microorganisms in almost every imaginable combination. Many of these may have formed their union in the distant past and evolved toward ever more interdependence and exquisite adaptation to one another."
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Dr. Fritjof Capra
Field of reference: Biology, Ecology
Description: How viruses contribute to balance inside the ecosystems and other samples of how organisms (ex. coral) integrate harmoniously into their surroundings.
“Although the structure and functioning of viruses is now well known, their basic nature still remains intriguing. Outside living cells a virus particle cannot be called a living organism; inside a cell it forms a living system together with the cell, but one of a very special kind. It is self-organising, but the purpose of its organization is not the stability and survival of the entire virus-cell system. Its only aim is the production of new viruses that will then go on to form living systems of this peculiar kind in the environments provided by other cells.The special way in which viruses exploit their environment is an exception in the living world. Most organisms integrate themselves harmoniously into their surroundings, and some of them reshape their environment in such a way that it becomes an ecosystem capable supporting large numbers of animals and plants. The outstanding example of such ecosystem-building organisms are corals, which for a long time were thought to be plants but are more appropriately classified as animals. Coral polyps are tiny multicellular organisms that join to form large colonies and, as such, can grow massive skeletons of limestone. Over long periods of geological time many of these colonies have grown into huge coral reefs, which represent by far the largest structures created by living organisms on earth. These massive structures support innumerable bacteria, plants, and animals; encrustin organisms living on top of the coral framework, fishes and invertebrates hiding in its nooks and crannies, and various other creatures that cover virtually all the available space on the reef. To build these densely populated ecosystems the coral polyps function in a highly coordinated way, sharing nervous networks and reproductive capabilities to such an extent that it is often difficult to consider them individual organisms."
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Dr. Fritjof Capra
Field of reference: Biology, Ecology
Description: The entire planet is one giant integrated system
“As the notion of an independent physical entity has become problematic in subatomic physics, so has the notion of an independent organism in biology. Living organisms, being open systems, keep themselves alive and functioning through intense transactions with their environment, which itself consists partially of organisms. Thus the whole biosphere - our planetary ecosystem - is a dynamic and highly integrated web of living and nonliving forms. Although this web is multilevel, transactions and interdependencies exist among all its levels.Most organisms are not only embedded in ecosystems but are complex ecosystems themselves, containing a host of smaller organisms that have considerable autonomy and yet integrate themselves harmoniously into the functioning of the whole. The smallest of these living components show an astonishing uniformity, resembling one another quite closely throughout the living world, as vividly described by Lewis Thomas."
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