Water — The common element: Lessons from antiquity and the health of the environment

Abstract

The chief pursuit of all aquatic science is to come to know the rules that govern aquatic systems. In this pursuit many scientists move in the direction of greater diversity, where the laws that govern ecosystem relationships become increasingly confined to specific circumstances. Uncovering these types of laws can provide useful information for specific cases but it is necessary to balance this type of investigation with work that goes in the opposite direction i.e. towards the common laws. Knowledge of these laws is more widely applicable and indeed becomes increasingly so the closer they are to the 'centre of the circle'. This type of pursuit was, and still should be, the function of the University, which seeks to find the unity in diversity.