The Universal & Atomic Elements of Organization
A falsifiable scientific theory proposing that the same irreducible structures organize both thought and reality — from the quantum to the social scale.
O-Theory proposes that four irreducible structures — Distinctions, Systems, Relationships and Perspectives (DSRP) — form the universal grammar of organization. Rather than being merely useful ways of thinking, these structures are hypothesized to be the atomic elements from which every organized phenomenon emerges, whether in cognition, biology, physics, mathematics, society, or the cosmos.
| D | S | R | P |
| Distinctions | Systems | Relationships | Perspectives |
| Identity ↔ Other | Part ↔ Whole | Action ↔ Reaction | Point ↔ View |
| D := (i ↔ o) | S := (p ↔ w) | R := (a ↔ r) | P := (ṗ ↔ v) |
This is a living scientific evidence compendium: an open, continually evolving collection of independent empirical research, formal theory, mathematical proofs, cross-disciplinary analyses, applications, critiques, and proposed falsifications. Every entry is included because it supports, refines, challenges, or attempts to falsify the theory.
Scientific theories are strengthened not only by evidence that confirms their predictions, but also by surviving attempts to falsify them. This compendium brings both together: independent evidence from researchers who were not testing DSRP and proposed counterexamples evaluated against the formal theory.
One counterexample is enough to falsify O-Theory. Until then, the question remains: do the same four structures organize everything from quantum systems to human thought?
Independent convergence is one of the strongest forms of scientific evidence because researchers arrive at the same conclusion while investigating different questions for different reasons.
The number is not the point. Researchers in different fields, studying different questions with different methods, repeatedly arrived at the same structural predictions—almost always without testing DSRP or using its language.
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This compendium began as the peer-reviewed literature review “A Literature Review of the Universal and Atomic Elements of Complex Cognition,” published in the Journal of Systems Thinking with 109 studies. That paper is the peer-reviewed foundation. What you see here is its living, continuously updated version . New studies are checked before they are added, and the collection now holds and keeps growing. Open any card to see what the researchers found, why it bears on DSRP, and where the original review discusses it, the fuller account.
The collection is updated continuously, so the citation carries the date you consulted it rather than a study count — the count changes weekly, and putting it in the reference would make the same collection look like a different work to everyone who cites it. To cite a single claim or study, use its own address: every one has a permanent link.
This is the adversarial half of the compendium. Where the evidence track asks what converges on DSRP, this one asks what would end it: a single organized phenomenon whose structure needs a fifth pattern, a ninth element, or a fifth structural dynamic. It holds written up from candidates across territories, and resolutions — the general answers those cases settle against. Every case is published whether it held or failed, including the ones still open.
Cite this rather than the evidence collection when the point is what survived attack. The two are separate works with separate addresses: one asks what converges on the theory, the other asks what would end it, and a reference to the first does not support a claim about the second. Case and resolution numbers change when the record is revised, so cite a case by its own permanent link rather than by number.
This collection is meant to keep growing. Send us a study, paper, book or critique that bears on DSRP, whether it supports the theory or cuts against it, and we will read it and decide whether it belongs.
Authors Girondot et al.
Year 2026
Publisher Journal of Animal Ecology
Discipline Ecology
Secondary disciplines Evolutionary Biology
Read it at the publisher 10.1111/1365-2656.70334
Green sea turtles ( Chelonia mydas ) are globally distributed and use tropical and subtropical beaches for nesting. Green turtles exhibit temperature‐dependent sex determination (TSD), a mechanism by which incubation temperature during a critical developmental window determines offspring sex. As global temperatures rise, many nesting populations could be producing increasingly female‐biased sex ratios, raising concerns about long‐term population viability. Our ability to assess demographic risks has been hindered by the absence of validated models that accurately convert field‐recorded nest temperatures into sex ratios. In this study, we combine high‐resolution temperature data from 62 monitored nests with known hatchling sex ratios ( n = 594 individuals) to develop and validate a predictive model for sex ratio in green turtles. We developed several methodological innovations to study the impact of temperature‐dependent sex determination (TSD) under natural conditions. First, we developed a novel approach to quantify spatial temperature heterogeneity ( H , range between the 2.5th and 97.5th percentiles of the pairwise differences of nest temperatures recorded at the same time) on a nesting beach. The median heterogeneity of the beach is 1.58°C (95% credible interval: 1.52–1.64°C). Second, using a Bayesian mixed‐model framework and experimental data from 1480 embryos incubated at constant temperatures under different moisture conditions, we detected genetic and/or maternal differences among clutches in the thermal sensitivity of sex ratio estimates, but no effect of Regional Management Units (RMU). Third, we fitted nine models to estimate field sex ratios; the best‐performing model combined a thermal reaction norm of sexualization with a sensitivity function across the thermosensitive period (TSP), showing that both the timing and magnitude of temperature exposure influence sex determination. Our results indicate that males can be produced even under apparent female‐producing conditions, due to temperature heterogeneity, temporal autocorrelation of nest temperatures that increased sex ratio variance and non‐linear sensitivity to male‐producing temperatures. This study establishes a new standard for predicting sex ratios in reptiles with TSD, offering critical insights for population assessments and adaptive conservation planning under changing climatic conditions.
Using temperature data from 62 nests and sex outcomes from 594 hatchlings, the authors found that males can still be produced in nests whose average temperature predicts an all-female clutch, because spatial heterogeneity within the nest pushes some eggs below the female-producing threshold.
Whether a nest counts as male- or female-producing depends on the scale at which temperature is measured — mean nest temperature versus fine-grained within-nest variation — so the vantage point taken determines which side of the male/female distinction a given egg falls on, even though the sex outcome itself is governed by a temperature-sex relationship.
Patterns it shows D, R, P
Added 2026-08-15
How to cite this Girondot et al. (2026). Male production in green sea turtles under a feminizing climate: A validated model of sex ratios with temperature-dependent sex determination. Journal of Animal Ecology.