Genetics and the Hierarchy of Biological Sciences: Genetics is binding biology at all levels, from macromolecule to species, into a unified discipline

Organising Levels of Organisation for Biology Education: A Systematic Review of Literature

Many authors suggest an explicit reflection on the levels of organisation, based on known difficulties related to understanding biological systems. Yet, there is no scientific consensus on the characteristics of biological levels and the quality of their relationships. This review intends to present the state of the current discussion in order to establish an educational argumentation as a basis for the development of learning environments and teaching experiments in biology education. For this purpose, we conducted a systematic literature review. Three databases (BIOSIS, ERIC, Fachportal-Pädagogik) were searched for literature on levels of organisation. The papers were analysed by means of a qualitative content analysis based on the following research questions: (1) Which levels of organisation do the authors name? (2) How do the authors describe the levels of organisation? (3) How do the authors describe the relationship between different levels of organisation? (4) How do the authors describe the challenges of these levels for biological education? (5) How do the authors describe the benefit of these levels for biological education? Based on the results, we propose a system of levels that features the concept of zooming-in and makes the relationships between the levels explicit.

Panpsychic organicism: Sewall Wright's philosophy for understanding complex genetic systems

Sewall Wright first encountered the complex systems characteristic of gene combinations while a graduate student at Harvard's Bussey Institute from 1912 to 1915. In Mendelian breeding experiments, Wright observed a hierarchical dependence of the organism's phenotype on dynamic networks of genetic interaction and organization. An animal's physical traits, and thus its autonomy from surrounding environmental constraints, depended greatly on how genes behaved in certain combinations. Wright recognized that while genes are the material determinants of the animal phenotype, operating with great regularity, the special nature of genetic systems contributes to the animal phenotype a degree of spontaneity and novelty, creating unpredictable trait variations by virtue of gene interactions. As a result of his experimentation, as well as his keen interest in the philosophical literature of his day, Wright was inspired to see genetic systems as conscious, living organisms in their own right. Moreover, he decided that since genetic systems maintain ordered stability and cause unpredictable novelty in their organic wholes (the animal phenotype), it would be necessary for biologists to integrate techniques for studying causally ordered phenomena (experimental method) and chance phenomena (correlation method). From 1914 to 1921 Wright developed his "method of path coefficient" (or "path analysis"), a new procedure drawing from both laboratory experimentation and statistical correlation in order to analyze the relative influence of specific genetic interactions on phenotype variation. In this paper I aim to show how Wright's philosophy for understanding complex genetic systems (panpsychic organicism) logically motivated his 1914-1921 design of path analysis.