The Promise of Integrative Biology: Resurrection of the Naturalist

Integrative biology has been practiced for a very long time; it is in our roots. Before agriculture, our ancestors depended on a fully integrated knowledge of their world to successfully hunt and gather. The de- velopment of agriculture was a natural consequence of such knowledge. Democritus and Aristotle champi- oned observation and synthesis to provide an integrat- ed world view that subsequently was subverted and mystified for nearly 2000 years. The giants who lead us through and out of the European renaissance—da Vinci, Gesner, Harvey, Ray, Malpighi, Leeuwenhoek, Hooke, Buffon, Linnaeus, Trembly, Lamarck, Cuvier, von Baer, and of course, Wallace and Darwin and their supporters, Huxley and Haeckel—all were integrative biologists, or in the terminology of the time, natural- ists. By the end of the 19 th century, integrative biology, and indeed science and rational thinking, carried great promise for the 20th century.