The Present Paradigm

Among the criteria listed in Chapter 1 to establish plant-plant allelopathic interactions were the following  

The affected plants must come in contact with and interact with the organic promoters or inhibitors produced directly or indirectly (e.g., modified by microorganisms) by an allelopathic plant, and 

These organic promoters and inhibitors must be at sufficient concentrations and be present for a sufficient length of time to modify plant function and growth of the receiving plant. 

It should be clearly evident at this point that demonstrating these two criteria in nature is quite a challenge, a challenge that has not been fully met at this writing. Our inability to clearly demonstrate these criteria for plant-plant allelopathic interactions in nature is the product of an inappropriate paradigm and the lack of adequate tools. For the sake of clarity and brevity I will limit my comments below to inhibitory plant-plant allelopathic interactions. 

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In the present paradigm, the cost of a metal-containing product is based on the world market price, which depends on the availability of the alloy, the location of the deposits, and the cost of extraction, purification and shipping. A new paradigm is needed where the environmental burden associated with resource extraction is factored into the cost. There should also be a cost associated with depleting metals with scarce world reserves. Finally, there should be a credit associated with the use of recycled metal. Including these environmental impact factors represents the true cost. 

To some extent, these ideas about consciousness are present in modern cognitive science, although with different forms and terminology, and the interested reader can refer to more specialized literature, for example the work by Damasio (1999) or by le Doux (2002). There are now many books on the subject of consciousness and many novel academic institutions devoted to the study of consciousness, with much emphasis on the relation between brain and mind. This is certainly remarkable in an area dominated by the molecular paradigm. Very little has yet been done to connect this with a bio-logical theory of life as a property from within, but I believe that the trend will move in this direction. In this sense, Francisco Varela has again been somewhat of a pioneer. 

The current paradigm in chemistry celebrates the existence of physical entities called chemical atoms (now known simply as atoms). John Dalton (1766-1844) looked at the material world in which he hved and visualized it in terms of a set of different material objects of small size and combining capacity (7). He called these particles atoms in his New System of Chemical Philosophy (1808). Others, such as Humphry Davy (1778-1829), were not yet willing to see the world in this way. Dalton combined both a partictrlar theory of nature and specific observatiorrs to arrive at his views. The present paper will examine some episodes in the history of chemistry that enabled other chemists to see atoms as appropriate chemical constituents of our world. The view of what constitutes a chemical atom has changed during the time period from 1808 to 2008, but the common theme requires a context in which actual measurements can be viewed as evidence for atoms. ... 

On a more positive note, multimedia enable us to respond pedagogically to the shifting paradigms of science, where, as remarked above, numerical analysis is replacing analytical solutions of equations. Through it, we can present computational chemistry, for instance, and pursue the fascinating complexity that arises from systems of coupled differential equations in chemical kinetics. 

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