Natura non facit saltus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject.
Please help recruit one or improve this article yourself. See the talk page for details.
Please consider using {{Expert-subject}} to associate this request with a WikiProject

Natura non facit saltus (Latin for "nature does not make (sudden) jumps") has been a principle of natural philosophies since Aristotle's time^[1]. It appears as an axiom in the work of Gottfried Leibniz (New Essays, IV, 16) and Isaac Newton, the inventors of infinitesimal calculus^[2], the exact phrase coming from Linnaeus' Philosophia Botanica^[3]. The axiom expresses that natural (macroscopical) processes are to vary continuously, or even in a differentiable fashion. In the first place it means that neither energy nor matter will disappear or created out of nothing which would be regarded by the axiom as "leap s of nature" and tells us that macroscopical processes do not start or stop without reason.

The principle is commonly seen as contradicting the postulates of quantum mechanics^[4], in which quantum leaps provide an example of discontinuous variation. But this in fact doesn't contradict the axiom. Quantum leaps are "natural" and even if they were a billion times smaller as they are, they would exist at any case as now almost "infinitesimally" small energetical transfers (leaps) to make our material system possible. Indivisible particles forms our matter - the atoms. They cannot be divided without losing their material properties. The same case is given with the energy - it consists of quantities divisible by discrete (indivisible) ‘energy elements’ - the Planck constant (h = 6.626 • 10^-34 J • s) is somewhat like an "atom of energy".

Modern evolutionary biology has terminology both suggesting continuous change, such as genetic drift, and suggesting discontinuous variation, such as mutation. However, as the basic structure of DNA is discrete, nature is now widely understood to make jumps, if on a very small scale^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Variant forms

The principle is also variously referred to as:

"Natura in operationibus suis non facit saltum" — 1613 appearance of a similar quote^[5].
"Natura non saltum facit" (Latin for "nature does not make a jump") — variant form used by Gottfried Leibniz
"Die Natur macht keine Sprünge" — German translation of the phrase^[5].