home » Story Basic structural levels of matter. Abstract: Structural levels of matter organization. Micro, macro, mega worlds Define the main levels of matter organization

Basic structural levels of matter. Abstract: Structural levels of matter organization. Micro, macro, mega worlds Define the main levels of matter organization

Moscow Open Social Academy

Department of Mathematical and General Natural Sciences

Academic discipline:

Concepts of modern natural science.

Abstract topic:

Structural levels of matter organization.

Faculty of Correspondence Education

group number: FEB-3.6

Supervisor:

Moscow 2009

INTRODUCTION

I. Structural levels of matter organization: micro-, macro-, mega-worlds

1.1 Modern view on the structural organization of matter

II. Structure and its role in the organization of living systems

2.1 System and whole

2.2 Part and element

2.3 Interaction of part and whole

III. Atom, man, the universe - a long chain of complications

CONCLUSION REFERENCES

Introduction

All objects of nature (living and inanimate nature) can be represented as a system with features that characterize their levels of organization. The concept of structural levels of living matter includes representations of systemicity and the organization of the integrity of living organisms associated with it. Living matter is discrete, i.e. is divided into constituent parts of a lower organization that have certain functions. Structural levels differ not only in complexity classes, but also in the patterns of functioning. The hierarchical structure is such that each higher level does not control, but includes the lower one. The diagram most accurately reflects a holistic picture of nature and the level of development of natural science as a whole. Taking into account the level of organization, it is possible to consider the hierarchy of the organization structures of material objects of animate and inanimate nature. Such a hierarchy of structures begins with elementary particles and ends with living communities. The concept of structural levels was first proposed in the 1920s. our century. In accordance with it, the structural levels differ not only in classes of complexity, but in the patterns of functioning. The concept includes a hierarchy of structural levels, in which each next level is included in the previous one.

The purpose of this work is to study the concept structural organization matter.

I. Structural levels of matter organization: micro-, macro-, mega-worlds

In modern science, ideas about the structure of the material world are based on a systematic approach, according to which any object of the material world, be it an atom, a planet, etc. can be considered as a system - a complex formation, including components, elements and connections between them. The element in this case means the minimum, further indivisible part of the given system.

The set of connections between elements forms the structure of the system, stable connections determine the orderliness of the system. Horizontal links are coordinating, they provide correlation (consistency) of the system, no part of the system can change without changing other parts. Vertical links are links of subordination, some elements of the system are subordinate to others. The system has a sign of integrity - this means that all its constituent parts, when combined into a whole, form a quality that cannot be reduced to the qualities of individual elements. According to modern scientific views, all natural objects are ordered, structured, hierarchically organized systems.

In the most general sense of the word "system" refers to any object or any phenomenon of the world around us and represents the relationship and interaction of parts (elements) within the framework of the whole. The structure is the internal organization of the system, which contributes to the connection of its elements into a single whole and gives it unique features. The structure determines the ordering of the elements of an object. Elements are any phenomena, processes, as well as any properties and relationships that are in some kind of mutual connection and relationship with each other.

In understanding the structural organization of matter, the concept of “development” plays an important role. The concept of the development of inanimate and living nature is considered as an irreversible directed change in the structure of objects of nature, since the structure expresses the level of organization of matter. The most important property of a structure is its relative stability. Structure is a general, qualitatively defined and relatively stable order of internal relations between the subsystems of a particular system. The concept of "level of organization", in contrast to the concept of "structure", includes the idea of a change in structures and its sequence in the course of the historical development of the system from the moment of its inception. While the change in structure may be random and not always directed, the change in the level of organization occurs in a necessary way.

Systems that have reached the appropriate level of organization and have a certain structure acquire the ability to use information in order to maintain unchanged (or increase) their level of organization through control and contribute to the constancy (or decrease) of their entropy (entropy is a measure of disorder). Until recently, natural science and other sciences could do without a holistic, systematic approach to their objects of study, without taking into account the study of the processes of formation of stable structures and self-organization.

At present, the problems of self-organization studied in synergetics are becoming relevant in many sciences, from physics to ecology.

The task of synergetics is to clarify the laws of building an organization, the emergence of order. Unlike cybernetics, here the emphasis is not on the processes of managing and exchanging information, but on the principles of building an organization, its emergence, development and self-complication (G. Haken). The question of optimal ordering and organization is especially acute in the study of global problems - energy, environmental, and many others that require the involvement of huge resources.

1.1 MODERN VIEWS ON THE STRUCTURAL ORGANIZATION OF MATTER

In classical natural science, the doctrine of the principles of the structural organization of matter was represented by classical atomism. The ideas of atomism served as the foundation for the synthesis of all knowledge about nature. In the 20th century, classical atomism underwent a radical transformation.

Modern principles of the structural organization of matter are associated with the development of system concepts and include some conceptual knowledge about the system and its features that characterize the state of the system, its behavior, organization and self-organization, interaction with the environment, purposefulness and predictability of behavior, and other properties.

The simplest classification of systems is their division into static and dynamic, which, despite its convenience, is still conditional, because. everything in the world is in constant change. Dynamic systems divided into deterministic and stochastic (probabilistic). This classification is based on the nature of predicting the dynamics of the behavior of systems. Such systems are studied in mechanics and astronomy. In contrast to them, stochastic systems, which are usually called probabilistic - statistical, deal with massive or repetitive random events and phenomena. Therefore, the predictions in them are not reliable, but only probabilistic.

According to the nature of interaction with the environment, open and closed (isolated) systems are distinguished, and sometimes partially open systems are also distinguished. Such a classification is mostly conditional, because the concept of closed systems arose in classical thermodynamics as a certain abstraction. The vast majority, if not all, of the systems are open source.

Many complex systems found in the social world are purposeful, i.e. focused on achieving one or more goals, and in different subsystems and at different levels of the organization, these goals can be different and even come into conflict with each other.

The classification and study of systems made it possible to develop a new method of cognition, which was called the system approach. The application of system ideas to the analysis of economic and social processes contributed to the emergence of game theory and decision theory. The most significant step in the development of the system method was the emergence of cybernetics as a general theory of control in technical systems, living organisms and society. Although separate theories of control existed even before cybernetics, the creation of a unified interdisciplinary approach made it possible to reveal deeper and more general patterns of control as a process of accumulation, transmission and transformation of information. The control itself is carried out with the help of algorithms, for the processing of which computers are used.

The universal theory of systems, which determined the fundamental role of the system method, expresses, on the one hand, the unity of the material world, and, on the other hand, the unity of scientific knowledge. An important consequence of this consideration of material processes was the limitation of the role of reduction in the cognition of systems. It became clear that the more some processes differ from others, the more qualitatively they are heterogeneous, the more difficult it is to reduce. Therefore, the laws of more complex systems cannot be completely reduced to the laws of lower forms or simpler systems. As an antipode to the reductionist approach, a holistic approach arises (from the Greek holos - the whole), according to which the whole always precedes the parts and is always more important than the parts.

Every system is a whole, formed by its interconnected and interacting parts. Therefore, the process of cognition of natural and social systems can be successful only when the parts and the whole in them are studied not in opposition, but in interaction with each other.

Modern science considers systems as complex, open, with many possibilities for new ways of development. The processes of development and functioning of a complex system have the nature of self-organization, i.e. the emergence of internally coordinated functioning due to internal connections and connections with the external environment. Self-organization is a natural scientific expression of the process of self-movement of matter. The ability for self-organization is possessed by systems of animate and inanimate nature, as well as artificial systems.

In the modern scientifically based concept of the systemic organization of matter, three structural levels of matter are usually distinguished:

microcosm - the world of atoms and elementary particles - extremely small directly unobservable objects, the dimension is from 10-8 cm to 10-16 cm, and the lifetime is from infinity to 10-24 s.

the macrocosm is the world of stable forms and human-sized values: earthly distances and velocities, masses and volumes; the dimension of macroobjects is comparable with the scale of human experience - spatial dimensions from fractions of a millimeter to kilometers and temporal measurements from fractions of a second to years.

megaworld - the world of space (planets, star complexes, galaxies, metagalaxies); the world of huge cosmic scales and speeds, the distance is measured in light years, and time in millions and billions of years;

The study of the hierarchy of structural levels of nature is connected with the solution of the most difficult problem of determining the boundaries of this hierarchy both in the mega-world and in the micro-world. The objects of each subsequent stage arise and develop as a result of the union and differentiation of certain sets of objects of the previous stage. Systems are becoming more and more tiered. The complexity of the system increases not only because the number of levels increases. Of essential importance is the development of new relationships between levels and with the environment common to such objects and their associations.

The microworld, being a sublevel of the macroworlds and megaworlds, has completely unique features and therefore cannot be described by theories related to other levels of nature. In particular, this world is inherently paradoxical. For him, the principle "consists of" does not apply. So, when two elementary particles collide, no smaller particles are formed. After the collision of two protons, many other elementary particles arise - including protons, mesons, hyperons. The phenomenon of "multiple production" of particles was explained by Heisenberg: during the collision, a large kinetic energy is converted into matter, and we observe the multiple birth of particles. The microworld is being actively studied. If 50 years ago only 3 types of elementary particles were known (electron and proton as the smallest particles of matter and photon as the minimum portion of energy), now about 400 particles have been discovered. The second paradoxical property of the microcosm is associated with the dual nature of a microparticle, which is both a wave and a corpuscle. Therefore, it cannot be strictly unambiguously localized in space and time. This feature is reflected in the Heisenberg uncertainty relation principle.

The levels of matter organization observed by man are mastered taking into account the natural conditions of human habitation, i.e. taking into account our earthly laws. However, this does not exclude the assumption that forms and states of matter, characterized by completely different properties, may exist at levels far enough from us. In this regard, scientists began to distinguish geocentric and non-geocentric material systems.

Geocentric world - the reference and basic world of Newtonian time and Euclidean space, is described by a set of theories related to objects on the earth's scale. Non-geocentric systems are a special type of objective reality, characterized by other types of attributes, other space, time, movement than earthly ones. There is an assumption that the microworld and the megaworld are windows into non-geocentric worlds, which means that their laws, at least to a remote extent, make it possible to imagine a different type of interaction than in the macrocosm or the geocentric type of reality.

There is no strict boundary between the mega world and the macro world. It is usually assumed that he

starts with distances of about 107 and masses of 1020 kg. The reference point for the beginning of the mega-world can be the Earth (diameter 1.28×10+7 m, weight 6×1021 kg). Since the megaworld deals with large distances, special units are introduced for their measurement: an astronomical unit, a light year and a parsec.

astronomical unit (a.u.) – the average distance from the Earth to the Sun, equal to 1.5 × 1011 m.

Light year – the distance that light travels in one year, namely 9.46 × 1015 m.

Parsec (parallax second) – the distance at which the annual parallax of the earth's orbit (i.e. the angle at which the semi-major axis of the earth's orbit is visible, located perpendicular to the line of sight) is equal to one second. This distance is 206265 AU. \u003d 3.08 × 1016 m \u003d 3.26 sv. G.

Celestial bodies in the Universe form systems of varying complexity. So the Sun and 9 planets moving around it form solar system. The main part of the stars of our galaxy is concentrated in the disk, visible from the Earth "from the side" in the form of a foggy strip that crosses the celestial sphere - the Milky Way.

All celestial bodies have their own history of development. The age of the Universe is 14 billion years. Age solar system is estimated at 5 billion years, the Earth - 4.5 billion years.

Another typology of material systems is quite widespread today. This is the division of nature into inorganic and organic, in which the social form of matter occupies a special place. Inorganic matter is elementary particles and fields atomic nuclei, atoms, molecules, macroscopic bodies, geological formations. Organic matter also has a multi-level structure: pre-cellular level - DNA, RNA, nucleic acids; cellular level - self-existing unicellular organisms; multicellular level - tissues, organs, functional systems(nervous, circulatory, etc.), organisms (plants, animals); supraorganismal structures - populations, biocenoses, biosphere. Social matter exists only thanks to the activities of people and includes special substructures: an individual, a family, a group, a collective, a state, a nation, etc.

II. STRUCTURE AND ITS ROLE IN THE ORGANIZATION OF LIVING SYSTEMS

2.1 SYSTEM AND WHOLE

A system is a set of interacting elements. Translated from Greek, this is a whole, made up of parts, a connection.

Having undergone a long historical evolution, the concept of a system from the middle of the 20th century. becomes one of the key scientific concepts.

Primary ideas about the system arose in ancient philosophy as orderliness and the value of being. The concept of a system now has an extremely wide scope: almost every object can be considered as a system.

Each system is characterized not only by the presence of connections and relationships between its constituent elements, but also by its inseparable unity with the environment.

There are different types of systems:

By the nature of the connection between parts and the whole - inorganic and organic;

According to the forms of motion of matter - mechanical, physical, chemical, physico-chemical;

In relation to movement - statistical and dynamic;

By types of changes - non-functional, functional, developing;

By the nature of the exchange with the environment - open and closed;

According to the degree of organization - simple and complex;

According to the level of development - lower and higher;

By nature of origin - natural, artificial, mixed;

In the direction of development - progressive and regressive.

According to one of the definitions, the whole is that which does not lack any of the parts, consisting of which, it is called the whole. The whole necessarily presupposes the systemic organization of its components.

The concept of the whole reflects the harmonic unity and interaction of parts according to a certain ordered system.

The affinity of the concepts of the whole and the system served as the basis for their not entirely correct complete identification. In the case of a system, we are not dealing with a single object, but with a group of interacting objects that mutually influence each other. With further improvement of the system towards the orderliness of its components, it can move into integrity. The concept of the whole characterizes not only the multiplicity of constituent components, but also the fact that the connection and interaction of parts are natural, arising from the internal needs of the development of parts and the whole.

Therefore, the whole is a special kind of system. The concept of the whole is a reflection of the internally necessary, organic nature of the interconnection of the components of the system, and sometimes a change in one of the components inevitably causes one or another change in the other, and often in the entire system.

The properties and mechanism of the whole as a higher level of organization in comparison with the parts organizing it cannot be explained only by summing up the properties and moments of action of these parts, considered in isolation from each other. New properties of the whole arise as a result of the interaction of its parts; law of association of parts.

Since the whole as a qualitative certainty is the result of the interaction of its components, it is necessary to dwell on their characteristics. Being components of a system or a whole, the components enter into various relationships with each other. Relations between elements can be divided into "element - structure" and "part - whole". In the system of the whole, the subordination of parts to the whole is observed. The system of the whole is characterized by the fact that it can create the organs it lacks.

2.2 PART AND ELEMENT

An element is such a component of an object that may be indifferent to the specifics of the object. In the category of structure, one can find a connection relationship and a relationship between elements that are indifferent to its specificity.

A part is also an integral component of an object, but, unlike an element, a part is a component that is not indifferent to the specifics of the object as a whole (for example, a table consists of parts - a lid and legs, as well as elements that fasten parts of screws, bolts, which can be used to fasten other items: cabinets, cabinets, etc.)

A living organism as a whole consists of many components. Some of them will be just elements, others at the same time and parts. Parts are only such components that are inherent in the functions of life (metabolism, etc.): extracellular living matter; cell; the cloth; organ; organ system.

All of them have the functions of a living thing, they all perform their specific functions in the organization system of the whole. Therefore, a part is such a component of the whole, the functioning of which is determined by the nature, the essence of the whole itself.

In addition to parts, there are other components in the body that do not possess the functions of life by themselves, i.e. are non-living components. These are the elements. Non-living elements are present at all levels of the systemic organization of living matter:

In the protoplasm of the cell - grains of starch, drops of fat, crystals;

In a multicellular organism, non-living components that do not have their own metabolism and the ability to reproduce themselves include hair, claws, horns, hooves, feathers.

Thus, the part and the element constitute the necessary components of the organization of the living as an integral system. Without elements (non-living components), the functioning of parts (living components) is impossible. Therefore, only the cumulative unity of both elements and parts, i.e. inanimate and living components, constitutes the systemic organization of life, its integrity.

2.2.1 RELATIONSHIP OF CATEGORIES PART AND ELEMENT

The correlation between the categories part and element is highly contradictory. The content of the part category differs from the element category: elements are all the constituent components of the whole, regardless of whether the specificity of the whole is expressed in them or not, and parts are only those elements in which the specificity of the object as a whole is directly expressed, therefore the category of the part is narrower than the category of the element. On the other hand, the content of the category of a part is wider than the category of an element, since only a certain set of elements constitutes a part. And this can be shown for any whole.

This means that there are certain levels or boundaries in the structural organization of the whole, which separate elements from parts. At the same time, the difference between the categories part and element is very relative, since they can interconvert, for example, organs or cells, while functioning, undergo destruction, which means that they turn from parts into elements and vice versa, they are again built from inanimate, i.e. . elements, and become parts. Elements not removed from the body can turn into salt deposits, which are already part of the body, and quite undesirable.

2.3 INTERACTION OF THE PART AND THE WHOLE

The interaction of the part and the whole lies in the fact that one presupposes the other, they are one and cannot exist without each other. There is no whole without a part and vice versa: there are no parts outside the whole. A part becomes a part only in the system of the whole. The part acquires its meaning only through the whole, just as the whole is the interaction of the parts.

In the interaction of the part and the whole, the leading, determining role belongs to the whole. Parts of the body cannot exist on their own. Representing individual adaptive structures of the organism, parts arise in the course of evolution for the sake of the whole organism.

The determining role of the whole in relation to the parts in organic nature is best confirmed by the phenomena of autotomy and regeneration. The lizard, grabbed by the tail, runs away, leaving the tip of the tail. The same thing happens with the claws of crabs, crayfish. Autotomy, i.e. self-cutting of the tail in a lizard, claws in crabs and crayfish, is a protective function that contributes to the adaptation of the body, developed in the evolutionary process. The organism sacrifices its part in the interests of saving and preserving the whole.

The phenomenon of autotomy is observed in cases where the body is able to restore the lost part. The missing part of the lizard's tail grows again (but only once). Crabs and crayfish also often grow broken claws. This means that the body is able to first lose a part for the sake of saving the whole, in order to restore this part later.

The phenomenon of regeneration testifies even more to the subordination of the parts to the whole: the whole necessarily requires the fulfillment to some extent of the lost parts. Modern biology has established that not only low-organized creatures (plants and protozoa) have a regenerative ability, but also mammals.

There are several types of regeneration: not only individual organs are restored, but also entire organisms from its individual sections (hydra from a ring cut from the middle of its body, protozoa, coral polyps, annelids, starfish, etc.). In Russian folklore, we know the Serpent-Gorynych, whose heads were cut off by good fellows, who immediately grew back ... In general biological terms, regeneration can be considered as the ability of an adult organism to develop.

However, the defining role of the whole in relation to the parts does not mean that the parts are devoid of their specificity. The determining role of the whole presupposes not a passive, but an active role of the parts, aimed at ensuring the normal life of the organism as a whole. Subordinating to the general system of the whole, the parts retain relative independence and autonomy. On the one hand, the parts act as components of the whole, and on the other hand, they themselves are a kind of integral structures, systems with their own specific functions and structures. In a multicellular organism, of all parts, it is the cells that represent the highest level of integrity and individuality.

The fact that the parts retain their relative independence and autonomy allows for the relative independence of the study of individual organ systems: the spinal cord, autonomic nervous system, digestive systems, etc., which has great importance for practice. An example of this is research and disclosure internal causes and mechanisms of relative independence of malignant tumors.

The relative independence of parts, to a greater extent than animals, is inherent in plants. They are characterized by the formation of some parts from others - vegetative reproduction. Everyone, probably, in his life had to see cuttings of other plants grafted, for example, on an apple tree.

3..ATOM, MAN, UNIVERSE - A LONG CHAIN OF COMPLICATIONS

In modern science, the method is widely used structural analysis, which takes into account the consistency of the object under study. After all, structure is the internal dismemberment of material existence, a way of existence of matter. Structural levels of matter are formed from a certain set of objects of any kind and are characterized by a special way of interaction between their constituent elements, in relation to the three main spheres of objective reality, these levels look as follows.

STRUCTURAL LEVELS OF MATTER
	inorganic		Society
1	Submicroelementary	Biological macromolecular	Individual
2	Microelementary	Cellular	A family
3	Nuclear	microorganic	Collectives
4	Atomic	Organs and tissues	Large social groups (classes, nations)
5	Molecular	Whole body	State (civil society)
6	macro level	population	State systems
7	Mega level (planets, star-planet systems, galaxies)	Biocenosis	Humanity
8	Metalevel (metagalaxies)	Biosphere	Noosphere

Each of the spheres of objective reality includes a number of interrelated structural levels. Within these levels, coordination relations are dominant, and between levels, subordinate ones.

A systematic study of material objects involves not only the establishment of ways to describe the relationships, connections and structure of many elements, but also the selection of those of them that are system-forming, i.e., provide separate functioning and development of the system. A systematic approach to material formations implies the possibility of understanding the system under consideration at a higher level. The system is usually characterized by a hierarchical structure, i.e., the sequential inclusion of a lower-level system into a higher-level system. Thus, the structure of matter at the level of inanimate nature (inorganic) includes elementary particles, atoms, molecules (objects of the microworld, macrobodies and objects of the megaworld: planets, galaxies, systems of metagalaxies, etc.). The metagalaxy is often identified with the entire Universe, but the Universe is understood in the broadest sense of the word, it is identical to the entire material world and moving matter, which can include many metagalaxies and other space systems.

Wildlife is also structured. It highlights the biological level and the social level. The biological level includes sublevels:

Macromolecules (nucleic acids, DNA, RNA, proteins);

Cellular level;

Microorganic (single-celled organisms);

Organs and tissues of the body as a whole;

population;

Biocenosis;

Biospheric.

The main concepts of this level at the last three sublevels are the concepts of biotope, biocenosis, biosphere, which require explanation.

Biotope - a collection (community) of the same species (for example, a pack of wolves) that can interbreed and produce their own kind (populations).

Biocenosis - a set of populations of organisms in which the waste products of some are the conditions for the existence of other organisms inhabiting a land or water area.

Biosphere is a global system of life, that part of the geographic environment (lower part of the atmosphere, upper part of the lithosphere and hydrosphere), which is the habitat of living organisms, providing the conditions necessary for their survival (temperature, soil, etc.), formed as a result of interaction biocenoses.

The general basis of life at the biological level - organic metabolism (exchange of matter, energy and information with the environment) manifests itself at any of the distinguished sublevels:

At the level of organisms, metabolism means assimilation and dissimilation through intracellular transformations;

At the level of ecosystems (biocenosis), it consists of a chain of transformation of a substance originally assimilated by producer organisms through consumer organisms and destroyer organisms belonging to different species;

At the level of the biosphere, there is a global circulation of matter and energy with the direct participation of cosmic scale factors.

At a certain stage in the development of the biosphere, special populations of living beings arise, which, thanks to their ability to work, have formed a kind of level - the social one. Social activity in the structural aspect is divided into sublevels: individuals, families, various teams (production), social groups, etc.

The structural level of social activity is in ambiguous linear relationships with each other (for example, the level of nations and the level of states). The interweaving of different levels within society gives rise to the idea of the dominance of chance and chaos in social activity. But a careful analysis reveals the presence of fundamental structures in it - the main spheres of public life, which are the material and production, social, political, spiritual spheres, which have their own laws and structures. All of them, in a certain sense, are subordinated as part of the socio-economic formation, deeply structured and determine the genetic unity of social development as a whole. Thus, any of the three areas of material reality is formed from a number of specific structural levels that are in strict order within a particular area of reality. The transition from one area to another is associated with the complication and increase in the set of formed factors that ensure the integrity of systems. Within each of the structural levels there are relationships of subordination (the molecular level includes the atomic level, and not vice versa). The patterns of new levels are irreducible to the patterns of levels on the basis of which they arose, and are leading for a given level of matter organization. Structural organization, i.e. system, is a way of existence of matter.

Conclusion

Structural levels of matter organization are built on the principle of a pyramid: the highest levels consist of a large number of lower levels. The lower levels are the basis of the existence of matter. Without these levels, further construction of the "pyramid of matter" is impossible. Higher (complex) levels are formed through evolution - gradually moving from simple to complex. Structural levels of matter are formed from a certain set of objects of any kind and are characterized by a special way of interaction between their constituent elements.

All objects of animate and inanimate nature can be represented as certain systems that have specific features and properties that characterize their level of organization. Taking into account the level of organization, it is possible to consider the hierarchy of the organization structures of material objects of animate and inanimate nature. Such a hierarchy of structures begins with elementary particles, which are the initial level of matter organization, and ends with living organizations and communities - the highest levels of organization.

The concept of structural levels of living matter includes representations of systemicity and the organic integrity of living organisms associated with it. However, the history of systems theory began with a mechanistic understanding of the organization of living matter, according to which everything higher was reduced to the lower: life processes - to the totality of physico-chemical reactions, and the organization of the body - to the interaction of molecules, cells, tissues, organs, etc.

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In classical natural science, and above all in the natural science of the last century, the doctrine of the principles of the structural organization of matter was represented by classical atomism. It was on atomism that the theoretical generalizations originating in each of the sciences were closed. The ideas of atomism served as the basis for the synthesis of knowledge and its original fulcrum. Today, under the influence of the rapid development of all areas of natural science, classical atomism is undergoing intensive transformations. The most significant and widely significant changes in our ideas about the principles of the structural organization of matter are those changes that are expressed in the current development of systemic ideas.

The general scheme of the hierarchical stepped structure of matter, associated with the recognition of the existence of relatively independent and stable levels, nodal points in a series of divisions of matter, retains its force and heuristic values. According to this scheme, discrete objects of a certain level of matter, entering into specific interactions, serve as initial sources for the formation and development of fundamentally new types of objects with different properties and forms of interaction. At the same time, the greater stability and independence of the original, relatively elementary objects determines the repeating and persisting properties, relationships, and patterns of objects of a higher level. This position is the same for systems of different nature.

The structure and systemic organization of matter are among its most important attributes, they express the orderliness of the existence of matter and the specific forms in which it manifests itself.

The structure of matter is usually understood as its structure in the macrocosm, i.e. existence in the form of molecules, atoms, elementary particles, etc. This is due to the fact that a person is a macroscopic being and macroscopic scales are familiar to him, therefore the concept of structure is usually associated with various micro-objects.

But if we consider matter as a whole, then the concept of the structure of matter will also cover macroscopic bodies, all cosmic systems of the mega-world, and at any arbitrarily large space-time scales. From this point of view, the concept of "structure" is manifested in the fact that it exists in the form of an infinite variety of integral systems, closely interconnected, as well as in the orderliness of the structure of each system. Such a structure is infinite in quantitative and qualitative terms.

The manifestations of the structural infinity of matter are:

– inexhaustibility of objects and processes of the microworld;

- infinity of space and time;

– infinity of changes and development of processes.

Of all the variety of forms of objective reality, only the finite area of the material world always remains empirically accessible, which now extends on a scale from 10 -15 to 10 28 cm, and in time - up to 2 × 10 9 years.

Structurality and systemic organization of matter are among its most important attributes. They express the orderliness of the existence of matter and those of its specific forms in which it manifests itself.

The material world is one: we mean that all its parts - from inanimate objects to living beings, from celestial bodies to man as a member of society - are connected in one way or another.

A system is something that is connected in a certain way with each other and is subject to the corresponding laws.

The ordering of the set implies the presence of regular relations between the elements of the system, which manifests itself in the form of laws of structural organization. Internal order exists in all natural systems that arise as a result of the interaction of bodies and the natural self-development of matter. The external one is typical for man-made artificial systems: technical, industrial, conceptual, etc.

Structural levels of matter are formed from a certain set of objects of any class and are characterized by a special type of interaction between their constituent elements.

The following features serve as a criterion for distinguishing various structural levels:

– space-time scales;

- a set of the most important properties;

– specific laws of motion;

- the degree of relative complexity that arises in the process of the historical development of matter in a given area of the world;

- some other indications.

The currently known structural levels of matter can be distinguished according to the above characteristics into the following areas.

1. Microworld. These include:

- elementary particles and atomic nuclei - an area of the order of 10 - 15 cm;

- atoms and molecules 10 -8 -10 -7 cm.

2. Macroworld: macroscopic bodies 10 -6 -10 7 cm.

The macrocosm is the world of stable forms and values commensurate with a person, as well as crystalline complexes of molecules, organisms, communities of organisms; the world of macro-objects, the dimension of which is comparable with the scale of human experience: spatial quantities are expressed in millimeters, centimeters and kilometers, and time - in seconds, minutes, hours, years.

Megaworld is planets, star complexes, galaxies, metagalaxies - a world of huge cosmic scales and speeds, the distance in which is measured in light years, and the time of existence of space objects is millions and billions of years.

And although these levels have their own specific laws, micro-, macro- and mega-worlds are closely interconnected.

3. Megaworld: space systems and unlimited scales up to 1028 cm.

Different levels of matter are characterized by different types of connections.

On a scale of 10–13 cm, strong interactions are observed, the integrity of the nucleus is ensured by nuclear forces.

The integrity of atoms, molecules, macrobodies is provided by electromagnetic forces.

On a cosmic scale - gravitational forces.

With an increase in the size of objects, the energy of interaction decreases. If we accept the energy gravitational interaction per unit, then the electromagnetic interaction in the atom will be 1039 times greater, and the interaction between nucleons - the particles that make up the nucleus - 1041 times greater. The smaller the dimensions of material systems, the more strongly their elements are interconnected.

The division of matter into structural levels is relative. In accessible space-time scales, the structure of matter manifests itself in its systemic organization, existence in the form of a multitude of hierarchically interacting systems, starting from elementary particles and ending with the Metagalaxy.

Speaking about structurality - the internal dissection of material existence, it can be noted that no matter how wide the range of the worldview of science is, it is closely connected with the discovery of more and more new structural formations. For example, if earlier the view of the Universe was closed by the Galaxy, then expanded to a system of galaxies, now the Metagalaxy is being studied as a special system with specific laws, internal and external interactions.

In modern science, the method of structural analysis is widely used, which takes into account the systematic nature of the objects under study. After all, structure is an internal dismemberment of material existence, a way of existence of matter. Structural levels of matter are formed from a certain set of objects of any kind and are characterized by a special way of interaction between their constituent elements, in relation to the three main spheres of objective reality, these levels look like this (Table 1).

Table 1 - Structural levels of matter

inorganic nature	Live nature	Society
Submicroelementary	Biological macromolecular	Individual
Microelementary	Cellular	A family
Nuclear	microorganic	Collectives
Atomic	Organs and tissues	Large social groups (classes, nations)
Molecular	Whole body	State (civil society)
macro level	Populations	State systems
Megalevel (planets, star-planetary systems, galaxies)	Biocenosis	humanity as a whole
Mega level (metagalaxies)	Biosphere	Noosphere

Each of the spheres of objective reality includes a number of interrelated structural levels. Within these levels, coordination relations are dominant, and between levels - subordinate ones.

Thus, the structure of matter at the level of inanimate nature (inorganic) includes elementary particles, atoms, molecules (objects of the microworld, macrobodies and objects of the megaworld: planets, galaxies, systems of metagalaxies, etc.). The metagalaxy is often identified with the entire Universe, but the Universe is understood in the broadest sense of the word, it is identical to the entire material world and moving matter, which can include many metagalaxies and other space systems.

Wildlife is also structured. It highlights the biological level and the social level. The biological level includes sublevels:

– macromolecules (nucleic acids, DNA, RNA, proteins);

– cellular level;

– microorganic (single-celled organisms);

- organs and tissues of the body as a whole;

- population;

- biocenosis;

- biospheric.

The main concepts of this level at the last three sublevels are the concepts of biotope, biocenosis, biosphere, which require explanation.

Biotope - a collection (community) of individuals of the same species (for example, a pack of wolves) that can interbreed and reproduce their own kind (populations).

Biocenosis - a set of populations of organisms in which the waste products of some are the conditions for the existence of other organisms inhabiting a land or water area.

The general basis of life at the biological level - organic metabolism (exchange of matter, energy and information with the environment) - manifests itself at any of the distinguished sublevels:

- at the level of organisms, metabolism means assimilation and dissimilation through intracellular transformations;

- at the level of ecosystems (biocenosis), it consists of a chain of transformations of a substance originally assimilated by producer organisms through consumer organisms and destroyer organisms belonging to different species;

- at the level of the biosphere, there is a global circulation of matter and energy with the direct participation of factors of a cosmic scale.

At a certain stage in the development of the biosphere, special populations of living beings arise, which, thanks to their ability to work, have formed a kind of level - the social one. Social reality in a structural aspect is divided into sublevels: individuals, families, various collectives (production), social groups, etc.

Thus, any of the three areas of material reality is formed from a number of specific structural levels that are in strict order within a particular area of reality.

The transition from one area to another is associated with the complication and increase in the set of formed factors that ensure the integrity of systems. Within each of the structural levels there are relationships of subordination (the molecular level includes the atomic level, and not vice versa). The patterns of new levels are irreducible to the patterns of levels on the basis of which they arose, and are leading for a given level of matter organization. Structural organization, i.e. system, is a way of existence of matter.

2. THREE "IMAGES" OF BIOLOGY. TRADITIONAL OR NATURALISTIC BIOLOGY

You can also talk about the three main directions of biology or, figuratively, the three images of biology:

1. Traditional or naturalistic biology. Its object of study is living nature in its natural state and undivided integrity - the "Temple of Nature", as Erasmus Darwin called it. The origins of traditional biology date back to the Middle Ages, although it is quite natural to recall here the works of Aristotle, who considered questions of biology, biological progress, tried to systematize living organisms ("the ladder of Nature"). Making biology into an independent science - naturalistic biology falls on the 18th-19th centuries. The first stage of naturalistic biology was marked by the creation of classifications of animals and plants. These include the well-known classification of C. Linnaeus (1707 - 1778), which is a traditional systematization flora, as well as the classification of J.-B. Lamarck, who applied an evolutionary approach to the classification of plants and animals. Traditional biology has not lost its significance at the present time. As evidence, the position of ecology among the biological sciences, as well as in all natural sciences, is cited. Its positions and authority are currently extremely high, and it is primarily based on the principles of traditional biology, as it explores the relationship of organisms with each other (biotic factors) and with the environment (abiotic factors).

2. Functional-chemical biology, reflecting the convergence of biology with the exact physical and chemical sciences. A feature of physicochemical biology is the widespread use of experimental methods that make it possible to study living matter at the submicroscopic, supramolecular and molecular levels. One of the most important sections of physical and chemical biology is molecular biology- the science that studies the structure of macromolecules that underlie living matter. Biology is often referred to as one of the leading sciences of the 21st century.

The most important experimental methods used in physicochemical biology include the method of labeled (radioactive) atoms, methods of X-ray diffraction analysis and electron microscopy, fractionation methods (for example, separation of various amino acids), the use of computers, etc.

3. Evolutionary biology. This branch of biology studies the laws of the historical development of organisms. At present, the concept of evolutionism has become, in fact, a platform on which the synthesis of heterogeneous and specialized knowledge takes place. Darwin's theory is at the heart of modern evolutionary biology. It is also interesting that Darwin at one time managed to identify such facts and patterns that have universal significance, i.e. the theory created by him is applicable to the explanation of phenomena occurring not only in living, but also inanimate nature. At present, the evolutionary approach has been adopted by all natural sciences. At the same time, evolutionary biology is an independent field of knowledge, with its own problems, research methods and development prospects.

At present, attempts are being made to synthesize these three areas (“images”) of biology and form an independent discipline - theoretical biology.

4. Theoretical biology. The goal of theoretical biology is the knowledge of the most fundamental and general principles, laws and properties that underlie living matter. Here different studies put forward different opinions on the question of what should be the foundation of theoretical biology. Let's consider some of them:

Axioms of biology. B.M. Mednikov, a prominent theorist and experimenter, deduced 4 axioms that characterize life and distinguish it from "non-life".

Axiom 1. All living organisms must consist of a phenotype and a program for its construction (genotype), which is inherited from generation to generation. It is not the structure that is inherited, but the description of the structure and instructions for its manufacture. Life on the basis of only one genotype or one phenotype is impossible, because in this case, neither the self-reproduction of the structure nor its self-maintenance can be ensured. (D. Neumann, N. Wiener).

Axiom 2. Genetic programs do not arise anew, but are replicated in a matrix way. The gene of the previous generation is used as a matrix on which the gene of the next generation is built. Life is matrix copying followed by self-assembly of copies (N.K. Koltsov).

Axiom 3. In the process of transmission from generation to generation, genetic programs change randomly and non-directionally as a result of many reasons, and only by chance do these changes turn out to be adaptive. The selection of random changes is not only the basis of the evolution of life, but also the reason for its formation, because selection does not work without mutations.

Axiom 4.
In the process of phenotype formation, random changes in genetic programs are multiplied, which makes it possible for them to be selected by environmental factors. Due to the amplification of random changes in the phenotypes, the evolution of living nature is fundamentally unpredictable (N.V. Timofeev-Resovsky).

E.S. Bauer (1935) put forward the principle of stable non-equilibrium of living systems as the main characteristic of life.

L. Bertalanffy (1932) considered biological objects as open systems in a state of dynamic equilibrium.

E. Schrödinger (1945), B.P. Astaurov represented the creation of theoretical biology in the image of theoretical physics.

S. Lem (1968) put forward a cybernetic interpretation of life.

5. A.A. Malinovsky (1960) proposed mathematical and systemic methods as the basis of theoretical biology.

The natural sciences, having begun the study of the material world with the simplest material objects directly perceived by man, proceed further to the study of the most complex objects of the deep structures of matter, which go beyond the limits of human perception and are incommensurable with the objects of everyday experience. Applying a systematic approach, natural science does not just single out the types of material systems, but reveals their connection and correlation.

In science, three levels of the structure of matter are distinguished:

The microcosm (elementary particles, nuclei, atoms, molecules) is the world of extremely small, not directly observable micro-objects, the spatial diversity of which is calculated from ten to the minus eighth power to ten to the minus sixteenth power cm, and the lifetime is from infinity to ten to minus twenty fourth power sec.

Macroworld (macromolecules, living organisms, man, technical objects, etc.) - the world of macroobjects, the dimension of which is comparable with the scale of human experience: spatial quantities are expressed in millimeters, centimeters and kilometers, and time - in seconds, minutes, hours, years .

Megaworld (planets, stars, galaxy) is a world of huge cosmic scales and speeds, the distance in which is measured in light years, and the time of existence of space objects is millions and billions of years.

And although these levels have their own specific laws, micro-, macro- and mega-worlds are closely interconnected. Fundamental world constants determine the scale of the hierarchical structure of the matter of our world. Obviously, their relatively small change should lead to the formation of a qualitatively different world, in which the formation of the currently existing micro-, macro- and megastructures and, in general, highly organized forms of living matter would become impossible. Their certain meanings and relationships between them, in essence, ensure the structural stability of our Universe. Therefore, the problem of seemingly abstract world constants has a global ideological significance.

Matter

Matter is an infinite set of all objects and systems existing in the world, the substratum of any properties, connections, relationships and forms of motion. Matter includes not only all directly observable objects and bodies of nature, but also all those that, in principle, can be known in the future on the basis of improving the means of observation and experiment. The ideas about the structure of the material world are based on a systematic approach, according to which any object of the material world, whether it be an atom, a planet, an organism or a galaxy, can be considered as a complex formation that includes components organized in integrity. To designate the integrity of objects in science, the concept of a system was developed.

Matter as an objective reality includes not only matter in its four states of aggregation (solid, liquid, gaseous, plasma), but also physical fields (electromagnetic, gravitational, nuclear, etc.), as well as their properties, relationships, products interactions. It also includes antimatter (a set of antiparticles: positron, or antielectron, antiproton, antineutron), recently discovered by science. Antimatter is by no means antimatter. There can be no antimatter at all. Motion and matter are organically and indissolubly connected with each other: there is no motion without matter, just as there is no matter without motion. In other words, there are no immutable things, properties and relations in the world. Some forms or types are replaced by others, pass into others - the movement is constant. Peace is a dialectically disappearing moment in the continuous process of change, becoming. Absolute peace is tantamount to death, or rather, non-existence. Both movement and rest are fixed with certainty only in relation to some frame of reference.

Moving matter exists in two basic forms - in space and in time. The concept of space serves to express the property of extension and the order of coexistence of material systems and their states. It is objective, universal and necessary. The concept of time fixes the duration and sequence of changes in the states of material systems. Time is objective, inevitable and irreversible.

The founder of the view of matter as consisting of discrete particles was Democritus. Democritus denied the infinite divisibility of matter. Atoms differ from each other only in shape, order of mutual succession, and position in empty space, as well as in size and gravity depending on the size. They have an infinite variety of forms with depressions or bulges. In modern science, there has been much debate about whether the atoms of Democritus are physical or geometric bodies, but Democritus himself has not yet reached the distinction between physics and geometry. From these atoms, moving in different directions, from their "whirlwind", by natural necessity, by the approach of mutually similar atoms, both separate whole bodies and the whole world are formed; the movement of atoms is eternal, and the number of emerging worlds is infinite. The world of objective reality accessible to man is constantly expanding. Conceptual forms of expression of the idea of structural levels of matter are diverse. Modern science identifies three structural levels in the world.

Structural levels of matter organization

The microworld is molecules, atoms, elementary particles - the world of extremely small, not directly observable micro-objects, the spatial diversity of which is calculated from 10-8 to 10-16 cm, and the lifetime is from infinity to 10-24 s. The macrocosm is the world of stable forms and values commensurate with a person, as well as crystalline complexes of molecules, organisms, communities of organisms; the world of macro-objects, the dimension of which is comparable with the scale of human experience: spatial quantities are expressed in millimeters, centimeters and kilometers, and time - in seconds, minutes, hours, years.

And although these levels have their own specific laws, micro-, macro- and mega-worlds are closely interconnected.

It is clear that the boundaries of the micro- and macro-world are mobile, and there is no separate micro-world and separate macro-world. Naturally, macro-objects and mega-objects are built from micro-objects, and micro-phenomena underlie macro- and mega-phenomena. This is clearly seen in the example of the construction of the Universe from interacting elementary particles within the framework of cosmic microphysics. In fact, we must understand that we are talking only about different levels of consideration of matter. Micro-, macro- and mega-sizes of objects correlate with each other as macro/micro - mega/macro.

In classical physics, there was no objective criterion for distinguishing a macro- from a micro-object. This difference was introduced by M. Planck: if for the object under consideration the minimum impact on it can be neglected, then these are macro-objects, if not, these are micro-objects. The nuclei of atoms are formed from protons and neutrons. Atoms combine into molecules. If we move further along the scale of body sizes, then the usual macro-bodies, planets and their systems, stars, clusters of galaxies and metagalaxies follow, that is, one can imagine the transition from micro-, macro- and mega-both in sizes and models of physical processes.

Microworld

Democritus in antiquity put forward the Atomistic hypothesis of the structure of matter, later, in the XVIII century. was revived by the chemist J. Dalton, who took the atomic weight of hydrogen as a unit and compared the atomic weights of other gases with it. Thanks to the works of J. Dalton, the physicochemical properties of the atom began to be studied. In the 19th century, D.I. Mendeleev built a system of chemical elements based on their atomic weight. The history of the study of the structure of the atom began in 1895 thanks to the discovery by J. Thomson of the electron - a negatively charged particle that is part of all atoms. Since the electrons have a negative charge, and the atom as a whole is electrically neutral, it was assumed that, in addition to the electron, there is also a positively charged particle. The mass of an electron was calculated to be 1/1836 of the mass of a positively charged particle.

The nucleus has a positive charge, and the electrons have a negative charge. Instead of the forces of gravity acting in the solar system, electric forces act in the atom. The electric charge of the nucleus of an atom, numerically equal to the serial number in the periodic system of Mendeleev, is balanced by the sum of the charges of the electrons - the atom is electrically neutral. Both of these models proved to be contradictory.

In 1913, the great Danish physicist N. Bohr applied the principle of quantization in solving the problem of the structure of the atom and the characteristics of atomic spectra. N. Bohr's model of the atom was based on E. Rutherford's planetary model and on the quantum theory of atomic structure developed by him. N. Bohr put forward a hypothesis of the structure of the atom, based on two postulates that are completely incompatible with classical physics:

1) in each atom there are several stationary states (in the language of the planetary model, several stationary orbits) of electrons, moving along which the electron can exist without radiating;

2) during the transition of an electron from one stationary state to another, the atom emits or absorbs a portion of energy.

Ultimately, it is fundamentally impossible to accurately describe the structure of an atom based on the idea of the orbits of point electrons, since such orbits do not actually exist. N. Bohr's theory represents, as it were, the boundary line of the first stage in the development of modern physics. This is the latest effort to describe the structure of the atom on the basis of classical physics, supplementing it with only a small number of new assumptions.

It seemed that N. Bohr's postulates reflect some new, unknown properties of matter, but only partially. The answers to these questions were obtained as a result of the development of quantum mechanics. It turned out that N. Bohr's atomic model should not be taken literally, as it was in the beginning. Processes in the atom, in principle, cannot be visualized in the form of mechanical models by analogy with events in the macrocosm. Even the concepts of space and time in the form existing in the macrocosm turned out to be unsuitable for describing microphysical phenomena. The atom of theoretical physicists became more and more an abstractly unobservable sum of equations.

Macroworld

In the history of the study of nature, two stages can be distinguished: pre-scientific and scientific. Pre-scientific, or natural-philosophical, covers the period from antiquity to the formation of experimental natural science in the 16th-17th centuries. Observed natural phenomena were explained on the basis of speculative philosophical principles. The most significant for the subsequent development of the natural sciences was the concept of the discrete structure of matter atomism, according to which all bodies consist of atoms - the smallest particles in the world.

With the formation of classical mechanics, the scientific stage of the study of nature begins. Since modern scientific ideas about the structural levels of the organization of matter were developed in the course of a critical rethinking of the ideas of classical science, applicable only to objects at the macro level, we need to start with the concepts of classical physics.

Formation scientific views The structure of matter dates back to the 16th century, when G. Galileo laid the foundation for the first physical picture of the world in the history of science - a mechanical one. He discovered the law of inertia, and developed a methodology for a new way of describing nature - scientific and theoretical. Its essence was that only some physical and geometric characteristics were distinguished, which became the subject of scientific research.

I. Newton, relying on the works of Galileo, developed a rigorous scientific theory of mechanics, describing both the movement of celestial bodies and the movement of terrestrial objects by the same laws. Nature was seen as a complex mechanical system. Within the framework of the mechanical picture of the world developed by I. Newton and his followers, a discrete (corpuscular) model of reality has developed. Matter was considered as a material substance, consisting of individual particles - atoms or corpuscles. Atoms are absolutely strong, indivisible, impenetrable, characterized by the presence of mass and weight.

The essential characteristic of the Newtonian world was the three-dimensional space of Euclidean geometry, which is absolutely constant and always at rest. Time was presented as a quantity independent of either space or matter. Movement was considered as movement in space along continuous trajectories in accordance with the laws of mechanics. The result of the Newtonian picture of the world was the image of the Universe as a gigantic and completely deterministic mechanism, where events and processes are a chain of interdependent causes and effects.

The mechanistic approach to the description of nature turned out to be extraordinarily fruitful. Following Newtonian mechanics, hydrodynamics, the theory of elasticity, the mechanical theory of heat, the molecular-kinetic theory, and a number of others were created, in line with which physics achieved tremendous success. However, there were two areas - optical and electromagnetic phenomena - that could not be fully explained within the framework of a mechanistic picture of the world.

Along with the mechanical corpuscular theory, attempts were made to explain optical phenomena in a fundamentally different way, namely, on the basis of the wave theory. The wave theory established an analogy between the propagation of light and the movement of waves on the surface of water or sound waves in air. It assumed the presence of an elastic medium that fills the entire space - the luminiferous ether. Based on the wave theory X. Huygens successfully explained the reflection and refraction of light.

Another area of physics where mechanical models proved inadequate was the area of electromagnetic phenomena. The experiments of the English naturalist M. Faraday and the theoretical work of the English physicist J. K. Maxwell completely destroyed the ideas of Newtonian physics about discrete matter as the only kind of matter and laid the foundation for the electromagnetic picture of the world. The phenomenon of electromagnetism was discovered by the Danish naturalist H.K. Oersted, who first noticed the magnetic effect of electric currents. Continuing research in this direction, M. Faraday discovered that a temporary change in magnetic fields creates an electric current.

M. Faraday came to the conclusion that the doctrine of electricity and optics are interconnected and form a single area. Maxwell "translated" Faraday's model of field lines into a mathematical formula. The concept of "field of forces" was originally formed as an auxiliary mathematical concept. J.K. Maxwell gave it a physical meaning and began to consider the field as an independent physical reality: "An electromagnetic field is that part of space that contains and surrounds bodies that are in an electrical or magnetic state"

Based on his research, Maxwell was able to conclude that light waves are electromagnetic waves. The single essence of light and electricity, which M. Faraday suggested in 1845, and J.K. Maxwell theoretically substantiated in 1862, was experimentally confirmed by the German physicist G. Hertz in 1888. After the experiments of G. Hertz in physics, the concept of a field was finally established not as an auxiliary mathematical construction, but as an objectively existing physical reality. A qualitatively new, unique type of matter was discovered. So to late XIX in. physics came to the conclusion that matter exists in two forms: discrete matter and continuous field. As a result of subsequent revolutionary discoveries in physics at the end of the last and the beginning of this century, the ideas of classical physics about matter and field as two qualitatively unique types of matter were destroyed.

Megaworld

Megaworld or space, modern science considers as an interacting and developing system of all celestial bodies. All existing galaxies are included in the system of the highest order - the Metagalaxy. The dimensions of the Metagalaxy are very large: the radius of the cosmological horizon is 15 - 20 billion light years. The concepts "Universe" and "Metagalaxy" are very close concepts: they characterize the same object, but in different aspects. The concept of "Universe" denotes the entire existing material world; concept "Metagalactic" - the same world, but from the point of view of its structure - as an ordered system of galaxies. The structure and evolution of the Universe are studied by cosmology. Cosmology, as a branch of natural science, is located at the intersection of science, religion and philosophy. Cosmological models of the Universe are based on certain ideological prerequisites, and these models themselves are of great ideological significance.

In classical science, there was the so-called steady state theory of the universe, according to which the universe has always been almost the same as it is now. Astronomy was static: the movements of planets and comets were studied, stars were described, their classifications were created, which, of course, was very important. But the question of the evolution of the universe was not raised. Modern cosmological models of the Universe are based on A. Einstein's general theory of relativity, according to which the metric of space and time is determined by the distribution of gravitational masses in the Universe. Its properties as a whole are determined by the average density of matter and other specific physical factors.

Einstein's equation of gravity has not one, but many solutions, which is the reason for the existence of many cosmological models of the Universe. The first model was developed by A. Einstein himself in 1917. He rejected the postulates of Newtonian cosmology about the absoluteness and infinity of space and time. In accordance with A. Einstein's cosmological model of the Universe, the world space is homogeneous and isotropic, matter is distributed uniformly in it on average, the gravitational attraction of masses is compensated by the universal cosmological repulsion. The time of existence of the Universe is infinite, i.e. has neither beginning nor end, and space is boundless, but finite.

The universe in A. Einstein's cosmological model is stationary, infinite in time and unlimited in space. In 1922 Russian mathematician and geophysicist A. A Fridman rejected the postulate of classical cosmology about the stationarity of the Universe and obtained a solution to the Einstein equation describing the Universe with “expanding” space. Since the average density of matter in the Universe is unknown, today we do not know in which of these spaces of the Universe we live.

In 1927, the Belgian abbot and scientist J. Lemaitre connected the “expansion” of space with the data of astronomical observations. Lemaitre introduced the concept of the beginning of the Universe as a singularity (ie superdense state) and the birth of the Universe as the Big Bang. The expansion of the universe is considered a scientifically established fact. According to the theoretical calculations of J. Lemaitre, the radius of the Universe in the initial state was 10-12 cm, which is close in size to the electron radius, and its density was 1096 g/cm 3 . In the singular state, the Universe was a micro-object of negligibly small size. From the initial singular state, the Universe moved on to expansion as a result of the Big Bang.

Retrospective calculations determine the age of the Universe at 13-20 billion years. In modern cosmology, for clarity, the initial stage of the evolution of the Universe is divided into “eras”.

The era of hadrons. Heavy particles entering into strong interactions.

The era of leptons. Light particles entering into electromagnetic interaction.

Photon era. Duration 1 million years. The bulk of the mass - the energy of the universe - falls on photons.

Star era. It comes 1 million years after the birth of the Universe. In the stellar era, the process of formation of protostars and protogalaxies begins. Then a grandiose picture of the formation of the structure of the Metagalaxy unfolds.

In modern cosmology, along with the Big Bang hypothesis, the inflationary model of the Universe, which considers the creation of the Universe, is very popular. Supporters of the inflationary model see a correspondence between the stages of cosmic evolution and the stages of the creation of the world, described in the book of Genesis in the Bible. In accordance with the inflationary hypothesis, cosmic evolution in the early Universe goes through a series of stages.

stage of inflation. As a result of the quantum jump, the Universe passed into a state of excited vacuum and, in the absence of matter and radiation in it, intensively expanded according to an exponential law. During this period, the very space and time of the Universe was created. The Universe swelled from an unimaginably small quantum size of 10-33 to an unimaginably large 101,000,000 cm, which is many orders of magnitude greater than the size of the observable Universe - 1028 cm. Throughout this initial period, there was neither matter nor radiation in the Universe. Transition from the inflationary stage to the photon one. The state of false vacuum disintegrated, the released energy went to the birth of heavy particles and antiparticles, which, having annihilated, gave a powerful flash of radiation (light) that illuminated the cosmos.

In the future, the development of the Universe went in the direction from the most simple homogeneous state to the creation of more and more complex structures - atoms (originally hydrogen atoms), galaxies, stars, planets, the synthesis of heavy elements in the interior of stars, including those necessary for the creation of life, the emergence of life and as the crown of creation - man. The difference between the stages of the evolution of the Universe in the inflationary model and the Big Bang model concerns only the initial stage of the order of 10-30 s, then there are no fundamental differences between these models in understanding the stages of cosmic evolution. The universe at various levels, from conditionally elementary particles to giant superclusters of galaxies, is characterized by structure. The modern structure of the Universe is the result of cosmic evolution, during which galaxies were formed from protogalaxies, stars from protostars, and planets from a protoplanetary cloud.

Metagalaxy - is a collection of star systems - galaxies, and its structure is determined by their distribution in space filled with extremely rarefied intergalactic gas and penetrated by intergalactic rays. According to modern concepts, a metagalaxy is characterized by a cellular (network, porous) structure. There are huge volumes of space (on the order of a million cubic megaparsecs) in which galaxies have not yet been discovered. The age of the Metagalaxy is close to the age of the Universe, since the formation of the structure falls on the period following the separation of matter and radiation. According to modern data, the age of the Metagalaxy is estimated at 15 billion years.

A galaxy is a giant system consisting of clusters of stars and nebulae that form a rather complex configuration in space. According to their shape, galaxies are conditionally divided into three types: elliptical, spiral, and irregular. Elliptical galaxies - have a spatial shape of an ellipsoid with varying degrees of compression; they are the simplest in structure: the distribution of stars decreases uniformly from the center. Spiral galaxies - represented in the form of a spiral, including spiral arms. This is the most numerous type of galaxies, to which our Galaxy belongs - the Milky Way. Irregular galaxies - do not have a pronounced shape, they lack a central core. The oldest stars are concentrated in the core of the galaxy, the age of which is approaching the age of the galaxy. The stars of middle and young age are located in the disk of the galaxy. Stars and nebulae within the galaxy move in a rather complex way, together with the galaxy they take part in the expansion of the universe, in addition, they participate in the rotation of the galaxy around its axis.

Stars. At the present stage of the evolution of the Universe, the matter in it is predominantly in a stellar state. 97% of the matter in our Galaxy is concentrated in stars, which are giant plasma formations of various sizes, temperatures, and with different motion characteristics. In many other galaxies, if not most, "stellar substance" makes up more than 99.9% of their mass. The age of stars varies over a fairly large range of values: from 15 billion years, corresponding to the age of the Universe, to hundreds of thousands - the youngest. The birth of stars occurs in gas-dust nebulae under the action of gravitational, magnetic and other forces, due to which unstable uniformities are formed and diffuse matter breaks up into a number of condensations. If such clumps persist long enough, they turn into stars over time. At the final stage of evolution, stars turn into inert ("dead") stars.

Stars do not exist in isolation, but form systems. The simplest star systems - the so-called multiple systems - consist of two, three, four, five or more stars revolving around a common center of gravity. Stars are also combined into even larger groups - star clusters, which may have a "scattered" or "spherical" structure. Open star clusters have several hundred individual stars, globular clusters - many hundreds of thousands. The solar system is a group of celestial bodies, very different in size and physical structure. This group includes: the Sun, nine large planets, dozens of satellites of planets, thousands of small planets (asteroids), hundreds of comets and countless meteorite bodies moving both in swarms and in the form of individual particles.

By 1979, 34 satellites and 2000 asteroids were known. All these bodies are united into one system due to the force of attraction of the central body - the Sun. The solar system is an ordered system that has its own patterns of structure. The unified character of the solar system is manifested in the fact that all the planets revolve around the sun in the same direction and almost in the same plane. Most satellites of planets rotate in the same direction and in most cases in the equatorial plane of their planet. The sun, planets, satellites of planets rotate around their axes in the same direction in which they move along their trajectories. The structure of the solar system is also natural: each next planet is approximately twice as far from the Sun as the previous one.

The solar system was formed about 5 billion years ago, and the Sun is a second-generation star. Thus, the solar system arose on the waste products of stars of previous generations that accumulated in gas and dust clouds. This circumstance gives reason to call the solar system a small part of stellar dust. Science knows less about the origin of the solar system and its historical evolution than is necessary for constructing a theory of planet formation.

Modern concepts of the origin of the planets of the solar system are based on the fact that it is necessary to take into account not only mechanical forces, but also others, in particular electromagnetic ones. This idea was put forward by the Swedish physicist and astrophysicist H. Alfven and the English astrophysicist F. Hoyle. In accordance with modern concepts, the original gas cloud, from which both the Sun and the planets were formed, consisted of ionized gas, subject to the influence of electromagnetic forces. After the Sun was formed from a huge gas cloud by concentration, small parts of this cloud remained at a very large distance from it. The gravitational force began to attract the remnants of the gas to the formed star - the Sun, but its magnetic field stopped the falling gas at various distances - just where the planets are. Gravitational and magnetic forces influenced the concentration and thickening of the falling gas, and as a result, the planets were formed. When the largest planets arose, the same process was repeated on a smaller scale, thus creating systems of satellites.

Theories of the origin of the solar system are hypothetical in nature, and it is impossible to unambiguously resolve the issue of their reliability at the present stage of the development of science. In all existing theories there are contradictions and unclear places. Currently, concepts are being developed in the field of fundamental theoretical physics, according to which the objectively existing world is not limited to the material world perceived by our sense organs or physical devices. The authors of these concepts came to the following conclusion: along with the material world, there is a reality of a higher order, which has a fundamentally different nature compared to the reality of the material world.

Since ancient times, people have tried to find an explanation for the diversity and bizarreness of the world. The study of matter and its structural levels is a necessary condition for the formation of a worldview, regardless of whether it ultimately turns out to be materialistic or idealistic. It is quite obvious that the role of defining the concept of matter, understanding the latter as inexhaustible for building a scientific picture of the world, solving the problem of reality and cognizability of objects and phenomena of the micro, macro and mega worlds is very important.

All of the above revolutionary discoveries in physics turned the previously existing views of the world upside down. The belief in the universality of the laws of classical mechanics disappeared, because the previous ideas about the indivisibility of the atom, about the constancy of mass, about the immutability of chemical elements, etc., were destroyed. Now it is hardly possible to find a physicist who would believe that all the problems of his science can be solved with the help of mechanical concepts and equations.

The birth and development of atomic physics thus finally crushed the former mechanistic picture of the world. But Newton's classical mechanics did not disappear. To this day, it occupies a place of honor among other natural sciences. With its help, for example, the movement of artificial satellites of the Earth, other space objects, etc. is calculated. But it is now treated as a special case of quantum mechanics, applicable to slow motions and large masses of objects in the macrocosm.

The materialistic understanding of substance has passed more than two thousand years of development. It began with a simplified idea of the foremother, i.e. about something that predates modern matter and is therefore substance.

The concept of matter is a fundamental category in philosophy and natural science. In Latin, materia means substance. The initial ideas about matter arose already in antiquity, where representatives of various philosophical schools identified it with the material substance underlying being: water (Thales), air (Anaximenes), fire (Heraclitus), atoms (Democritus), etc.

In the Middle Ages, matter was understood mainly as the material from which things are made. Matter as a philosophical category did not develop, although we find in St. Augustine the concept of “spiritual and bodily matter”.

In the XVII - XVIII centuries. a new understanding of matter is emerging, different from the ideas of the ancients. It was concluded that matter is not a specific substance (earth, fire, water, air, etc.), but a physical reality as such. During this period, mathematical, natural and social sciences sprout from philosophy and develop as independent branches. The most developed sciences of that time were mechanics and geometry, therefore mechanism prevailed in the views on matter. Matter is defined as a collection of sensually perceived bodies. Matter is identified with matter, consisting of indivisible, immutable atoms, possessing universal properties: mechanical mass, weight, impenetrability, inertia. Everything material has these properties, which means that it is quite logical to transfer these properties from specific substances to the Substance as such.

At the same time, the definition of matter appeared, given by the English philosopher J. Berkeley, a classic of subjective idealism. In his work "Dialogue between the Philosopher Berkeley and the Materialist," he puts into the mouth of the materialist the concept of matter as a reality that affects our sensations, but does not depend on them. Berkeley, being a subjective idealist, directed all his philosophical energy to the struggle against materialism and its basic concept - matter, but it was the definition of matter given by him that was used by the French materialists, who understood by matter everything that acts on our senses. Under this everything that acts on our senses, they meant a substance, which is a collection of specific particles-atoms, identical to each other, having universal properties. The basis of matter-substance is the fundamental laws of the universe, and above all the law of conservation of matter.

This understanding of matter was historically progressive, but also limited. The German philosopher F. Engels was the first to point out this limitation. He believed that matter cannot be reduced to a set of specific particles-atoms, since they themselves can have a complex structure. He owns the definition of matter as general concept covering all kinds of things.

The limitations of the concept of identifying matter with substance became especially obvious for natural science at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. It was during that period that a crisis broke out in physics associated with revolutionary discoveries.

As one of the options for overcoming the crisis and further development of physics and philosophy, V.I. Lenin proposed a new methodological basis- a new definition of matter: "Matter is a philosophical category for designating an objective reality that is given to a person in his sensations, which is copied, photographed, displayed by our sensations, existing independently of them."

Lenin believed that it was necessary to distinguish between the philosophical understanding of matter and physical ideas about its properties and structure, and gave a philosophical definition, focusing on the fact that matter as a category does not mean anything other than objective reality, which means that no matter what new state of matter, it is enough to determine whether this discovery is an objective reality or not. Further, with his definition, he emphasized that matter is the primary reality in relation to our sensations, since it exists independently of them.

Lenin's definition is more dialectical than previous metaphysical definitions, since it is open to subsequent knowledge and development. But, like any definition, it is historically limited. It is rather epistemological than ontological, because to say that matter is an objective reality is to say nothing in terms of content. This definition works against subjective idealism, but does not work at all against objective idealism. After all, God, and the world mind, and the absolute idea fit into the definition of objective reality for a person who believes in them. God appears to the believer in a specific image, which he perceives with the help of the senses.

But, despite these shortcomings, in materialism today there is no newer and more perfect definition of matter. Along with the worldview, the methodological significance of this definition for the development of natural science should also be noted. The idea of the inexhaustibility of matter, expressed by V.I. Lenin, is now one of the guiding methodological principles of natural science research. This is especially clearly manifested in modern views on the structure of matter that have developed in the natural sciences.

Let us briefly characterize the modern ideas about structural organization of matter. Structural levels of matter are formed from a certain set of objects of any class and are characterized by a special type of interaction between their constituent elements. The criteria for distinguishing structural levels are space-time scales, the totality of the most important properties and laws of change, the degree of relative complexity that arose in the process of the historical development of matter in a given area of the world.

inorganic nature is divided into three 1) micro-, 2) macro- and 3) megaworlds, having the following sequence of structural levels: 1) submicroelementary - microelementary (elementary particles and field interactions) - nuclear - atomic - molecular - 2) level of macroscopic bodies (a number of sublevels ) - 3) planets - star-planetary complexes - galaxies - metagalaxies.

Live nature is subdivided into the following levels: biological macromolecules - cellular level - microorganism - organs and tissues - organism as a whole - population - biocenosis - biospheric. The general basis of life - organic metabolism (exchange of matter, energy and information with the environment) - is specified in each of the distinguished levels.

social reality represented by levels: individuals - families - collectives - social groups - classes - nationalities and nations - states and systems of states - society as a whole.

We also note that higher levels of the systemic organization of matter arise within the framework of a relatively small set of phenomena of the previous level. So, out of the three main groups of levels of inorganic nature (micro-, macro- and mega-world), life arises only at the level of a smaller part of the phenomena of the macro-world, just as society arises in representatives of a single biological species. The complication of the systemic organization of matter is thus accompanied by a narrowing of the possibilities for its implementation.

Matter. structure and system organization of matter. System organization as an attribute of matter. The structure of matter. Structural levels of matter organization. structural levels of various spheres.

Matter

Cellular - independently existing unicellular organisms;

Multicellular - organs and tissues, functional systems (nervous, circulatory), organisms: plants and animals;

The body as a whole;

Populations (biotope) - communities of individuals of the same species that are connected by a common gene pool (they can interbreed and reproduce their own kind): a pack of wolves in a forest, a pack of fish in a lake, an anthill, a bush;

- biocenosis - a set of populations of organisms in which the waste products of some become the conditions for the life and existence of other organisms inhabiting a land or water area. For example, a forest: populations of plants living in it, as well as animals, fungi, lichens and microorganisms interact with each other, forming an integral system;

- biosphere - a global system of life, that part of the geographic environment (lower part of the atmosphere, upper part of the lithosphere and hydrosphere), which is the habitat of living organisms, providing the conditions necessary for their survival (temperature, soil, etc.), formed as a result interactions of biocenoses.

The general basis of life at the biological level is organic metabolism (exchange of matter, energy, information with the environment), which manifests itself at any of the distinguished sublevels:

At the level of organisms, metabolism means assimilation and dissimilation through intracellular transformations;

At the level of biocenosis, it consists of a chain of transformations of a substance originally assimilated by producer organisms through consumer organisms and destroyer organisms belonging to different species;

At the level of the biosphere, there is a global circulation of matter and energy with the direct participation of cosmic scale factors.

Within the framework of the biosphere, a special type of material system begins to develop, which is formed due to the ability of special populations of living beings to work - human society. Social reality includes sublevels: individual, family, group, collective, social group, classes, nations, state, systems of states, society as a whole. Society exists only thanks to the activity of people.

The structural level of social reality is in ambiguous linear relationships with each other (for example, the level of the nation and the level of the state). The interweaving of different levels of the structure of society does not mean the absence of order and structure in society. In society, one can single out fundamental structures - the main spheres of public life: material and production, social, political, spiritual, etc., which have their own laws and structures. All of them in a certain sense are subordinated, structured and determine the genetic unity of the development of society as a whole.

Thus, any of the areas of objective reality is formed from a number of specific structural levels that are in strict order within a particular area of reality. The transition from one area to another is associated with the complication and increase in the set of formed factors that ensure the integrity of systems, i.e. the evolution of material systems proceeds in the direction from the simple to the complex, from the lower to the higher.

Within each of the structural levels there are relationships of subordination (the molecular level includes the atomic level, and not vice versa). Any higher form arises on the basis of the lower one, includes it in its sublated form. This means, in essence, that the specificity of higher forms can be known only on the basis of an analysis of the structures of lower forms. Conversely, the essence of a form of a higher order can be known only on the basis of the content of a higher form of matter in relation to it.

The patterns of new levels are not reducible to the patterns of levels on the basis of which they arose, and are leading for a given level of matter organization. In addition, the transfer of the properties of the higher levels of matter to the lower ones is unlawful. Each level of matter has its own qualitative specifics. In the highest level of matter, its lower forms are presented not in a “pure”, but in a synthesized (“removed”) form. For example, it is impossible to transfer the laws of the animal world to society, even if at first glance it seems that the "law of the jungle" dominates in it. Although the cruelty of a person can be incomparably greater than the cruelty of predators, nevertheless, such human feelings as love and compassion are unfamiliar to predators.

On the other hand, attempts to find elements of higher levels at the lower levels are groundless. For example, a thinking cobblestone. This is hyperbole. But there were attempts by biologists in which they tried to create "human" conditions for monkeys, hoping to find an anthropoid (primitive man) in their offspring in a hundred or two hundred years.

Structural levels of matter interact with each other as part and whole. The interaction of the part and the whole lies in the fact that one presupposes the other, they are one and cannot exist without each other. There is no whole without a part, and there are no parts without a whole. The part acquires its meaning only through the whole, just as the whole is the interaction of the parts.

In the interaction of the part and the whole, the decisive role belongs to the whole. However, this does not mean that the parts are devoid of their specificity. The determining role of the whole presupposes not a passive, but an active role of the parts, aimed at ensuring the normal life of the universe as a whole. Subordinating to the general system of the whole, the parts retain their relative independence and autonomy. On the one hand, they act as components of the whole, and on the other hand, they themselves are a kind of integral structures, systems. For example, the factors that ensure the integrity of systems in inanimate nature are nuclear, electromagnetic and other forces, in society - industrial relations, political, national, etc.

Structural organization, i.e. system, is a way of existence of matter.

Literature

1. Akhiezer A.I., Rekalo M.P. Modern physical picture of the world. M., 1980.

2. Weinberg S. Discovery of subatomic particles. M., 1986.

3. Weinberg S. The first three minutes. M., 1981.

4. Rovinsky R.E. Developing Universe. M., 1995.

5. Shklovsky I.S. Stars, their birth and death. M., 1975.

6. Philosophical problems of natural science. M., 1985.

II. STRUCTURE AND ITS ROLE IN THE ORGANIZATION OF LIVING SYSTEMS

2.1 SYSTEM AND WHOLE

2.2 PART AND ELEMENT

2.2.1 RELATIONSHIP OF CATEGORIES PART AND ELEMENT

2.3 INTERACTION OF THE PART AND THE WHOLE

Bibliography

2. THREE "IMAGES" OF BIOLOGY. TRADITIONAL OR NATURALISTIC BIOLOGY

You can also talk about the three main directions of biology or, figuratively, the three images of biology:

The most important experimental methods used in physicochemical biology include the method of labeled (radioactive) atoms, methods of X-ray diffraction analysis and electron microscopy, fractionation methods (for example, separation of various amino acids), the use of computers, etc.

At present, attempts are being made to synthesize these three areas (“images”) of biology and form an independent discipline - theoretical biology.

Axioms of biology. B.M. Mednikov, a prominent theorist and experimenter, deduced 4 axioms that characterize life and distinguish it from "non-life".

Matter

ecosystems

Zoology

Biology

Long 19th century

recent history

Middle Ages

new time

Interwar period