From genes to ecosystems: how to bridge such different scales

Virginie Courtier-Orgogozo
Biologist, CNRS researcher at the Jacques Monod Institute, Paris.
Honorary professor of the annual chair at the Collège de France.

HiPhiS – Inter-university Seminar on the History and Philosophy of Science
2024 Cycle: Questions of scale? Different perspectives.

Created in 2009 and supported by Montpellier universities and the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme de Montpellier, HiPhiS is a high-level inter-university seminar on contemporary science, which aims to draw the attention of the entire university community (teachers and students) to the interdisciplinary interest and philosophical issues of the research carried out in the teams and laboratories of our universities, as well as in the international scientific community.

The HiPhiS 2024 cycle is supported by the Research MIPS (Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics, Systems) Research Center.

HiPhiS contacts: Delphine Bellis / Laurent Boiteau / Viviane Durand-Guerrier

Summary

From Mendel's work in the 19th century, which highlighted the existence of microscopic "factors" explaining the color of flowers, to today's biology, which is considering genetically modifying various organisms such as mosquitoes and plants to combat epidemics and global warming, our relationship with the living world has changed significantly. And it continues to evolve as new discoveries are made. How can we use today's knowledge to understand the effect of genes on organisms and the environment? How can we untangle all the myriad interactions of living things, from molecules to ecosystems? We will examine one of the fascinating features of biology, which is its ability to link extremely diverse spatial and temporal scales.