Morphogenesis – “The Riddles of Form” in Twenty-First Century Science

Abstract

Over the past decades, the notions of organic form and morphology—a scientific field historically associated with the eighteenth century polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832)—have stealthy re-assumed a central role in various scientific disciplines. Although the study of organic form was apparently excluded from the main stage of evolutionary theory and biological sciences during the second half of the twentieth century, since morphology was considered as a descriptive and ancillary science unable to contribute to the neo-Darwinian synthesis of evolution, morphological concepts and approaches have now been re-brought onto the central stage of mainstream science. In fact, several interdisciplinary Clusters of Excellence have been for instance established in Germany to investigate the enigma and power of