Scaling

We discussed this quite a bit in BIPH3001 since it's quite an important problem for biological systems. I find the relationships between energy scales quite interesting phenomena. For example, is it possible for a living creature to function in space, drawing its energy only from the sun? How big would it be? (cf. Tyranids) The modelling of behaviours of populations in a system is also an interesting question.

Another, more condensed matter related example is the question of if we could model the galaxies in the universe with the kinetic theory model.

The scaling part of these problems is whether the to the internal composition of the parts of the system is related to its overall 'macro' behaviour. Using the examples before, one can model the living organism as having certain rates/parameters that scale with the relative sizes and volumes of the organism, without looking at the constituent proteins of the animal; likewise, how does the behaviour of a population relate to the neural networks of the constituent animals? And how does the precise arrangement of planets in the galaxies relate to their overall placement?

These are all tricky questions of importance!