ABSTRACT
The central problem of theoretical biology is to supply the missing links between purely descriptive approaches to the field and the powerful mathematical techniques present in modern physics. The mechanics part suggests its origin in the analytical features of physics and the statistical part suggests origins in the purely descriptive aspects of nature. The role of statistical mechanics in supplying the connection between the analytical and descriptive features of experience can be seen in its efforts to characterize macroscopic variables. Flaving selected or perceived the relevant variables, the connections or laws holding among them must be supplied, as they are within statistical mechanics. The inductive procedures of statistics which are suitable for descriptive phenomena must be incorporated within the structure of statistical mechanics. Conversely, the ensembles used in statistical mechanics would then be applicable to biological classes which contain fewer members than the infinite homogeneous ensembles of physics.
