Understanding the Rules of Life
Elucidating the sets of rules that predict an organism's observable characteristics, its phenotype.
Life on our planet is arranged in levels of organization ranging from the molecular scale through to the biosphere. There exists a remarkable amount of complexity in the interactions within and between these levels of organization and across scales of time and space.
For example, within an ecosystem, biotic, abiotic and environmental components of the system can all interact within a single process, as in the nitrogen cycle.
There also exists an equal amount of complexity within the cells that comprise every living thing within that ecosystem, from the transcription and translation of the organism's genome, to the way a cell creates usable forms of energy.
The NSF Rules of Life Big Idea has multiple goals:
- To enable discoveries that will allow us to better understand such interactions and identify causal, predictive relationships across these scales -- so-called "rules" for how life functions;
- To develop research tools and infrastructure
- To further Rules of Life research
- And to provide us with the capacity to approach more complex questions than ever before;
- To train the next generation of researchers to approach scientific inquiry in a way that crosses scales and scientific disciplines;
- And to foster collaboration and convergent research across the Foundation and beyond by helping us to consider multiple levels of organization and complexity in addressing key questions in the life sciences.
Though we're still learning to identify Rules of Life projects, they may have these characteristics:
- Addresses a fundamental question in the life sciences
- Crosses different scales (spatial, temporal, levels of biological organization and complexity)
- Generates results that will be broadly generalizable beyond the system under investigation, so that a rule can be formulated
- Enables the forecasting or prediction of change in a biological system
The predictive capability of the Rules of Life explored by such projects will enable us to address some of the greatest challenges we currently face in understanding the living world.
RELATED NEWS
- NSF uses Rules of Life research to address societal challenges, from clean water to climate change
(NSF News Release, August 8, 2023) - Understanding the Rules of Life Program: Scientific Advancements and Future Opportunities
(National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Publication, July 14, 2023) - Reflections on the National Science Foundation's Understanding the Rules of Life Program: Proceedings of a Workshop Series
(National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine Publication, July 14, 2023) - Using the Rules of Life to Address Societal Challenges (URoL:ASC)
(Program Announcement, Oct. 31, 2022) - Outcomes of Workshop Series on Using the Rules of Life to Address Societal Challenges
(Report, Aug. 5, 2022) - Understanding the Rules of Life: Emergent Networks (URoL:EN) Predicting Transformation of Living Systems in Evolving Environments
(Program Announcement, Dec. 3, 2021) - Understanding the Rules of Life: Emergent Networks (URoL:EN) Predicting Transformation of Living Systems in Evolving Environments
(Program Announcement, Feb. 8, 2021) - Understanding the Rules of Life: Microbiome Interactions and Mechanisms (URoL:MIM)
(Program Announcement, Nov. 25, 2020) - Understanding the Rules of Life: Epigenetics
(Program Announcement, Nov. 4, 2019) - Understanding the Rules of Life: Microbiome Theory and Mechanisms
(Program Announcement, Nov. 4, 2019) - NSF commits $36 million to uncovering Rules of Life that will drive next-generation research
(NSF News Release, Sept. 4, 2019) - Understanding the Rules of Life: Epigenetics
(Program Announcement, Sept. 28, 2018) - Understanding the Rules of Life: Building a Synthetic Cell
(Program Announcement, Sept. 28, 2018) - NSF issues first Convergence awards, addressing societal challenges through scientific collaboration
(NSF News Release, Aug. 25, 2017) - ’Rules of Life‘ outlines path to predicting phenotype
(NSF News Release, Aug. 8, 2017) - NSF issues $14 million in awards for improved genomic tools
(NSF News Release, July 10, 2017)
VIDEOS
Video: Ten Big Ideas for Future NSF Investment
Ten research and process "big ideas" that will drive important aspects of NSF's long-term research agenda, push forward the frontiers of U.S. science and engineering research, and lead to new discoveries and innovations.