The team examined numerous case studies concerning scientific unification as well as developed new tools for assessing and formulating claims about scientific unification. There have been significant achievements on all three sub-projects (foundations, chemistry-physics interface, and biology-chemistry interface):
For the foundations sub-project, the Unity of Science book (Tahko, Cambridge University Press, 2021) is a core reference work and analysis of the state of the art as well as open questions in this area. The book summarises the results from the first two years of the project and identifies foundational questions for the future, as well as giving an overview of some of the case studies conducted. The team has also worked on further explication of the key technical notions applied to the relevant case studies. These include relations of ontological dependence, reduction, realization, and emergence.
On the chemistry-physics interface, important work was been done on the status of chemical bonds, molecular structure, and the role of the measurement problem in quantum chemistry. In particular, the possibility of emergence in these contexts has been analysed meticulously, with the result that some claims for strong emergence in this area may have been exaggerated, and there is a need for reinterpretation of these results with a more rigorous analysis of emergence.
On the biology-chemistry interface, an important pilot study was published early on, concerning the inter-level relationships at the interface between biology and chemistry, specifically, biochemical kinds such as proteins. These kinds pose interesting problems for philosophers of science, as they can be studied from the points of view of both biology and chemistry. A suggested upshot is that there are reasonable prospects for ontological reductionism about biochemical kinds, which corroborates natural kind monism. Further work conducted in this area include a detailed analysis the nature of biochemical functions and the status of genes, as well as the problem of biological individuality.
More theoretical work has involved an analysis of powers and dispositions and their relationship to functional laws, conservation laws, and symmetries, as well as an analysis of the role of modality in scientific modelling. The team have also researched the modal status of laws of nature, and the prospects of Humeanism with regard to many of the previously mentioned areas.
The results have been disseminated in nearly 30 papers in leading academic journals and publications, as well as in three monographs. There has also been a series of popular articles in venues such as Chemistry World, various blog posts and interviews, a podcast series, as well as active engagement via the project's social media channels.
