{ "model": { "rank": 424, "code": "thing-q420", "model_id": "vr.tr.biology", "name": "biology", "purpose": "Let an agent treat biology as a discipline with fields, methods, evidence standards and institutions, separate from the organisms it studies.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.KNW", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q420/", "tier": 2, "score": 317, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "pharmacoeconomist", "Māori agriculture and forestry", "forest pathology", "forest zoology", "animal nutrition science", "cat nutrition", "Mosquito proboscis inspired needles", "anti-allergic agents", "biosemiotics", "biosemantics", "zoosemiotics", "phytosemiotics", "phytoserology", "ichnology", "metabolomics", "genomics", "multiomics", "glycomics", "digital morphology", "invasion biology", "plant genomics", "Fermentation theory", "computational biology", "plant nutrition", "neurobiology", "neuropharmacology", "neuroanatomy", "applied biology", "applied zoology", "applied microbiology", "agricultural science", "microbiology", "aquatic biology", "forensic biology", "experimental biology", "nanobiology", "biotypology", "neoichnology", "bird ichnology", "nmr-based metabolomics" ], "aliasCount": 761, "merged": 761, "knownIn": 317, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": "vr.tr.biology", "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q420", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q420", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T04:52:39Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q420", "registryId": "vr.tr.biology", "name": "biology", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.KNW" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q420/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.biology", "name": "biology", "purpose": "Let an agent treat biology as a discipline with fields, methods, evidence standards and institutions, separate from the organisms it studies.", "definition": "The natural science that studies living organisms, their structure, function, growth, evolution, distribution and interactions, from molecules to ecosystems.", "what_it_is_for": "Understanding life, and grounding medicine, agriculture, conservation and biotechnology.", "affordances": [ "study and teach it", "conduct research, under ethical and biosafety rules", "publish and review findings", "apply it, in medicine, agriculture and industry" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "A discipline, not the organisms", "Divided into many fields and scales", "Relies on experiment, observation and evolution as a unifying theory", "Governed by research ethics and biosafety rules" ], "appearance": "Laboratories, field sites, collections, journals and university departments; the discipline itself has no appearance.", "visual_identification": [ "Research articles, textbooks and courses labelled by field", "Institutions and societies in the life sciences", "Organisms themselves are separate entries" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "molecular and cell biology", "genetics and genomics", "physiology and anatomy", "ecology and evolution", "zoology, botany, microbiology, mycology", "applied fields such as forest pathology and animal nutrition" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "natural science", "why": "alongside physics and chemistry" }, { "relation": "studies", "target": "organism", "why": "animals, plants, fungi, microbes" }, { "relation": "underpins", "target": "medicine and agriculture", "why": "applied disciplines" }, { "relation": "is confused with", "target": "life itself", "why": "the discipline is not its subject" } ], "identifiers": [ { "scheme": "field classification", "value_or_pattern": "OECD FORD 1.6 Biological sciences", "note": "research classification" } ], "standards_and_regulation": [ "Research ethics and animal research law such as EU Directive 2010/63", "Biosafety levels and the Biological Weapons Convention", "Nagoya Protocol on genetic resources" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Irreproducible results", "Biosafety lapses", "Dual-use research that could enable harm, which agents must not help with" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "scope", "name": "Scope", "description": "Fields and scales.", "rationale": "Biology spans molecules to ecosystems; the field locates any claim.", "layers": [ { "id": "field", "name": "Field", "description": "Sub-discipline.", "findings": [ { "id": "field-finding", "name": "Field", "description": "Which field a question belongs to.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which field of biology does this question belong to?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which neighbouring fields are relevant?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "scale", "name": "Scale", "description": "Molecule to ecosystem.", "findings": [ { "id": "scale-finding", "name": "Level of organisation", "description": "The level studied.", "questions": [ { "text": "At which level of organisation is this studied?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Does a finding at one level transfer to another?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "methods-and-evidence", "name": "Methods and evidence", "description": "How knowledge is made.", "rationale": "Evidence strength decides how far a claim can be trusted.", "layers": [ { "id": "methods", "name": "Methods", "description": "Experiment, observation, modelling.", "findings": [ { "id": "methods-finding", "name": "Methods", "description": "The method used.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which method produced this finding?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "What are its limitations?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "evidence", "name": "Evidence strength", "description": "Replication and review.", "findings": [ { "id": "evidence-finding", "name": "Evidence quality", "description": "Peer review and replication.", "questions": [ { "text": "Has the finding been peer reviewed and replicated?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Is it consensus or contested?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ethics-and-safety", "name": "Ethics and safety", "description": "Rules for research.", "rationale": "Research on living things is regulated.", "layers": [ { "id": "ethics", "name": "Ethics", "description": "Animal and human research.", "findings": [ { "id": "ethics-finding", "name": "Ethics approval", "description": "Approvals required.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which ethics approvals did this research need?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How were animals or participants protected?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "biosafety", "name": "Biosafety and dual use", "description": "Containment and misuse.", "findings": [ { "id": "biosafety-finding", "name": "Biosafety", "description": "Containment and misuse risks.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which biosafety level applies?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Could this information enable harm, and should it be withheld?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "institutions", "name": "Institutions", "description": "Where biology is done.", "rationale": "Institutions, journals and societies carry the discipline.", "layers": [ { "id": "bodies", "name": "Bodies", "description": "Universities, institutes, societies.", "findings": [ { "id": "bodies-finding", "name": "Institutions", "description": "Key institutions.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which institutions lead research on this topic?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which journals publish it?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "education", "name": "Education", "description": "Courses and qualifications.", "findings": [ { "id": "education-finding", "name": "Education", "description": "How it is taught.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is this field taught, and at which levels?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Which qualifications are recognised?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should fields of biology be separate entries?", "How should agents assess the strength of biological evidence?", "How should dual-use limits be represented?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "discipline or field of knowledge", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a biology, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent treat biology as a discipline with fields, methods, evidence standards and institutions, separate from the organisms it studies.", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: pharmacoeconomist, Māori agriculture and forestry, forest pathology, forest zoology, animal nutrition science, cat nutrition, Mosquito proboscis inspired needles, anti-allergic agents, biosemiotics, biosemantics, zoosemiotics, phytosemiotics.", "761 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 317 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a biology, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "content that has to be carried by something else", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "read it and act on what it says" ], "howItIsRecognised": [], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "pharmacoeconomist", "Māori agriculture and forestry", "forest pathology", "forest zoology", "animal nutrition science", "cat nutrition", "Mosquito proboscis inspired needles", "anti-allergic agents", "biosemiotics", "biosemantics", "zoosemiotics", "phytosemiotics" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 317 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 761 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one biology from another, and a biology from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a biology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a biology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a biology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a biology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a biology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a biology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a biology sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a biology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a biology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a biology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a biology from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a biology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a biology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a biology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a biology passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a biology between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a biology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a biology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a biology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a biology, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a biology is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a biology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a biology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a biology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "content-and-access", "name": "Content, encoding and access", "description": "What a biology says, how it is encoded and who may read it.", "rationale": "An informational thing carries content that can be copied, versioned and withheld, none of which its physical carrier explains.", "layers": [ { "id": "content-and-encoding", "name": "Content and encoding", "description": "The content itself, its format and its language.", "findings": [ { "id": "content-and-format", "name": "Content, format and language", "description": "What a biology contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a biology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the content of a biology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the content of a biology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-and-rights", "name": "Access, rights and retention", "description": "Who may read, copy or change it, and for how long it is kept.", "findings": [ { "id": "access-rules", "name": "Access rules and retention", "description": "The permissions attached to a biology and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a biology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about access to a biology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once access to a biology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "subject-and-method", "name": "Subject matter and method", "description": "What biology studies and how it establishes anything.", "rationale": "A field is identified by its questions and its methods, and those are what distinguish it from the fields next to it.", "layers": [ { "id": "subject", "name": "Subject matter", "description": "The questions it takes as its own.", "findings": [ { "id": "subject-record", "name": "Questions and objects of study", "description": "What it is about, stated so a neighbouring field can be told apart.", "questions": [ { "id": "subject-record-q01", "text": "What questions and objects does biology take as its own?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "subject-record-q02", "text": "Which questions does it share with a neighbouring field, and who claims them?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "method", "name": "Method and evidence", "description": "How claims are established and what counts as evidence.", "findings": [ { "id": "method-record", "name": "Methods and standards of evidence", "description": "The methods used and what they are taken to establish.", "questions": [ { "id": "method-record-q01", "text": "By what methods does biology establish claims, and what counts as sufficient evidence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "method-record-q02", "text": "What kind of claim can this field not settle, and where should an agent look instead?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "institutions-and-classification", "name": "Institutions and classification", "description": "Where biology is practised and how catalogues place it.", "rationale": "The institutional footprint is the evidence that a field exists as a field rather than as a topic.", "layers": [ { "id": "institutions", "name": "Institutional markers", "description": "Societies, journals, degrees and departments.", "findings": [ { "id": "institution-record", "name": "Bodies and venues", "description": "Where the field organises itself.", "questions": [ { "id": "institution-record-q01", "text": "Which societies, journals or degrees mark biology as an established field?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "institution-record-q02", "text": "What would show that it is emerging or dissolving rather than established?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification", "name": "Classification schemes", "description": "Where library and research classifications put it.", "findings": [ { "id": "classification-record", "name": "Codes and their disagreements", "description": "The classification codes that place it, and where they differ.", "questions": [ { "id": "classification-record-q01", "text": "Which classification schemes place biology, under what codes?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "classification-record-q02", "text": "Where do those schemes disagree about its scope?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a biology came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a biology and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a biology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a biology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a biology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a biology is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a biology, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a biology, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a biology is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }