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Periphery and centre — indicators for inversions in plant growth

Goethe said 'that nature has no secrets that she does not somewhere present naked to the eyes of the attentive observer' (Annals of 1790). A secret in two senses, i.e. not only for our inspection but also for our understamling, is the changing shape of the organ in the… Read More

Goethe's and Schiller's Xenien on 'The Philosophers'

The Xenien is a series of satirical epigrams that Johnnn Wolfgang von Goethe und Friedrich Schiller first published in 1797 in Schiller's Musenalmanach. The name Xenien was coined by the Roman poet Martial (1st century AD) who thus named the 13th book of his Martial Epigrams which… Read More

Greater spearwort (Ranunculus lingua L.)

Ranunculus lingua L. is a member of the buttercup family. It has petioleless, lanceolate leaves and grows in water close to the bank and reaches a height of 1.5 m. Göbel (unpublished) and SUCHANTKE (2009) have shown that in the genus Ranunculus, with its multitude of leaf forms, the respective… Read More

Sketch of an organismic systems biology

Biology has been dominated for a long time by two contrasting explanations and research approaches: reductionism and holism. This article shows that both views are one-sided and that a new synthesis can be developed. We develop a fundamental concept of the organism starting from the earlier… Read More

Metamorphosis in the biography of an artist Philippe Lambercy, ceramist (1919-2006)

Philippe Lambercy was one of the pioneers of modern ceramics. He left behind a wide range of works including pottery, ceramic sculptures, installations and architectonic works, especially reliefs on public und private buildings. He also left drawings,… Read More

What is expressed in a person’s sleeping phases?

Whereas contemporary psychologists and philosophers puzzle over whether there is any such thing as 'consciousness', sleep researchers are in surprising agreement that the human being daily passes through three different forms of consciousness: waking, sleeping, dreaming. But just as… Read More

Nodes and internodes — on Goethe’s concept of the spiral tendency

Starting from the interesting phenomenon of biastrepsis (‘Zwangsdrehung’), the helical twisting of shoots, in which the rhythm of node and internode formation in the plant shoot deviates from a kind of continuum of both elements, we discuss the question of the eonditions… Read More

It has long been regarded as unscientific to consider the musical aspects of territorial behaviour among songbirds. The musical abilities of song birds, for example their perception of melody and their capacity to transpose, have been questioned many times. Furthermore, avian intelligence — With the exception of ravens and parrots — was… Read More

In the European medical tradition there are basically two therapeutic procedures: 1) the substitution procedure; 2) the stimulus procedure.

The substitution procedure gives the diseased organism what is missing: for example hormone replacement for hormone deficiency (hormone replacement therapy in diabetes or the menopause), replacement… Read More

The interaction between rhythrn and form

The process of metamorphosis is based on an interplay of space and time, form and movement. This also applies to the cognitive process. In the following presentation, I attempt to show, by means of observations of plants, how space and time, form and movement are permeated by mathematical-… Read More