Department of Evolution, Ecology and Organismal Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
Philos Trans A Math Phys Eng Sci. 2020 Sep 18;378(2180):20190309. doi: 10.1098/rsta.2019.0309. Epub 2020 Aug 17.
Darwin and Mendeleev revolutionized their respective disciplines by organizing diverse facts into simple, pictorial representations-a tree and a table. Each representation provides a foundation for a scientific theory for two reasons. First, a successful theory unites diverse phenomena under a single explanatory framework. Second, it does so in a way that defines paths for future inquiry that extends its reach and tests its limits. For Mendeleev, this meant creating a table that accommodated the current understanding of the elements but also contained blanks that predicted the discovery of previously unknown elements. More importantly, the structure of the table helped shape future research to define the structure of matter. For Darwin, envisioning life as a tree meant defining the rules that govern the origin of adaptations, species and shape the constantly shifting diversity of life. At the same time, his theory inspired research into the laws of inheritance and created diverse new areas of research, like behaviour, sexual selection and biogeography. The shared property of Darwin and Mendeleev's contributions was to provide a unifying rational explanation for natural phenomena. This article is part of the theme issue 'Mendeleev and the periodic table'.
达尔文和门捷列夫通过将各种事实组织成简单的图像表示——一棵树和一张表，彻底改变了他们各自的学科。这两种表示都为科学理论提供了基础，原因有二。首先，一个成功的理论将各种现象统一在一个解释框架下。其次，它以一种定义未来探究路径的方式做到这一点，这些路径扩展了理论的范围并检验了它的极限。对门捷列夫来说，这意味着创建一个既能容纳当前对元素的理解，又能包含预测以前未知元素发现的空白的表格。更重要的是，该表格的结构帮助塑造了未来的研究，以定义物质的结构。对达尔文来说，将生命想象成一棵树意味着定义支配适应、物种起源的规则，并塑造生命不断变化的多样性。与此同时，他的理论激发了对遗传规律的研究，并创造了许多新的研究领域，如行为、性选择和生物地理学。达尔文和门捷列夫贡献的共同特点是为自然现象提供了一个统一的理性解释。本文是主题为“门捷列夫和元素周期表”的一部分。
