My contribution to the 85th issue of Tangled Bank hosted at Migrations.

Many of the basic sciences can be viewed in terms of fundamental discrete units, at least on certain levels. Particle physics, cellular and molecular biology, and chemistry all have simpler discrete units that comprise larger, more complex systems. What about the discrete units of astrobiology, though? It is even reasonable to think of astrobiology in reductionist terms?

Astrobiology by definition is an interdisciplinary field, consisting of geologists, biologists, chemists, meteorologists, astronomers, and others who collective seek an understanding of the context of life in the Universe. To this end, there is no singular reductionist unit, because the participating scientists come from widely varying academic disciplines; in effect, the disciplines themselves become the building blocks. The knowledge of evolutionary biology (based on the study of genes) is as foundational to astrobiology as the knowledge of high energy physics (based on increasingly elusive subatomic particles).

The reductionist units of astrobiology, then, are not concrete physical observables, but are scientific disciplines themselves! Scientists in various disciplines no doubt find immense satisfaction in breaking apart a problem to reach the most fundamental–and perhaps meaningful–level. But in an interdisciplinary field, such as astrobiology, we begin with the fundamentals to build up a multi-faceted picture that can bring greater meaning to the questions we ask.

Where have we come from?
What is our future?
Are we alone?

These questions are as old as the dawn of humanity, yet it is only recently that they have entered the domain of science. And every day that we gain a better understanding of fundamental science at a reductionist level is a day closer to answering some of the most profound questions of existence.