Il metodo della fisica e le problematiche della biologia

Following the ancient Hermetic aphorism solve et coagula, we investigate the nature of the interface between physics and biology by moving up and down the different temporal and spatial scales which enter the description of natural phenomena. Various indications seem to support both the existence of such an interface and the possibility of finding methods, languages, and targets shared by such two disciplines. However, this possibility becomes remote if one moves further and further from the microscopic level of atoms and molecules (and, correspondingly, of molecular biology). We conclude that the biologically founded epistemology proposed by Maturana and Varela as well as cultural anthropology and sociology cannot yet be treated with the methodology of physics.