Biological systems

Abstract This chapter explores innovation in the biological realm by quantifying diversity at various scales. It revisits the species sampling problem to tackle the challenge of estimating global biodiversity, emphasising the vast number of species that likely remain undiscovered. The analysis then shifts to the molecular level, investigating the chemical diversity of metabolic compounds and the genomic diversity within bacterial species, known as the pangenome. In each case, the discovery process reveals an ever-expanding landscape, where the rate of discovering new elements—whether they are species, molecules or genes—follows statistical patterns of innovation.