The black box, the creature from the Black Lagoon, August Krogh, and the dominant animal

An organism is a complex chemical system that can respond to its environment, reproduce, grow, and develop in form and function, and maintain some measure of homeostasis. Nonetheless, it is a mistake to reduce the study of organisms to the level of chemistry, physics, or molecular biology. The system is highly integrated, and the properties of intact organisms are what determine their fitness in a changing environment, making the individual the primary unit of selection as well as the primary unit that interacts with the environment. Organismal biology seeks to describe and understand the responses of these complex biological systems to environmental challenges (both external and internal) as well as how they affect their environment. This approach works best when studies of model organisms are integrated into broader comparative investigations, over several levels of organization (populations, whole organisms, organs, tissues, cells, and genomes) and over time-frames from fractions of a second to millions of years. Organisms are the bridge between genomes and ecosystems, and between genetics and evolution. The impacts of environmental changes are reflected in the organism’s structure, function, development, growth, evolution, distribution, and diversity, all being dependent upon its ability, or inability, to adapt and survive. Conversely, the organism shapes the environment in both subtle and profound ways. In short, as organisms go, so go their genes and their populations—and our world. The development of modern molecular biology, genetics, and genomics (along with other ‘‘omics’’) has strengthened the interrelationships between field and laboratory in forming testable hypotheses for aspects of evolutionary change and responses to environmental change (Wake 2003). This two-way integration can, and does, arise at either end of a continuum extending from molecules to ecosystems in a highly hierarchical system. Integrative biology thus argues for a horizontal collaboration and cooperation in attacking important questions in biological research. This is more than a wave of the future; it is a valuable ongoing approach with incredible potential for the advancement of our base of knowledge in biology. Laying out ‘‘biology’’ in an overtly simplistic linear template based on structural and functional organization with molecules on one end and ecosystems on the other, we have a rather large middle ground. Organismal biology occupies this middle ground; hence any truly integrative study must pass through this region to construct large-scale concepts. When standing in this middle ground, one gets the sense that this region of organization is sometimes treated like a black box from which interesting jumps are made into molecules or populations, from laboratory or field perspectives. But returning to the organism is often