How cross-disciplinary science can describe living matter

TL;DR

Life challenges ordinary physical laws because disciplinary abstractions omit simultaneously mass and charge in ions. The paper proposes a cross-disciplinary, non-ordinary framework that treats interacting electrical and thermodynamic forces and accounts for different interaction speeds via per-stage approximations. It develops a unified model of ion transport using an extended Nernst-Planck formalism and a dual-speed electrodiffusion description, including relations such as $\frac{\partial c}{\partial t} = \nabla \cdot [ D \nabla c - \mathbf{v} c + \frac{D q z}{k_B T} \mathbf{E} ]$ and $\frac{dV}{dt} \approx 2 \times 10^{-6} \frac{dC}{dt}$. The results provide a framework to describe living matter, especially neuronal operation, that integrates electrical, mechanical, and thermodynamic aspects, with potential to inspire a new interdisciplinary discipline.

Abstract

Experience shows that disciplinary science cannot describe life without contradictions. We show that one of the fundamental reasons is the disciplinarity itself: the disciplines deal with a limited set of quantities. This way some 'outlaw' quantities are not measured and the discipline does not have laws about them. All laws of science are based on approximations and the approximations must be different for inanimate and life sciences. Studying ions is special because ions belong simultaneously to thermodynamics and electricity, but neither of those disciplines alone can describe biological processes. One needs a cross-disciplinary discussion and maybe a new scientific discipline. We provide a method for handling the different interaction speeds characterizing the ion transport. Electrolytes in living matter introduce further peculiarities with their closed volumes, internal structure, and slow processes. Their meticulous analysis led to the appropriate approximations, leading to the correct scientific description. As a success story, the cross-disciplinary theory of neuronal operation has been developed.