Dear Ronald,

If the making of simulations is a science or a fantasy depends on you. If you claim my model is the reality and nature has to behave the way I want it, then you are probably working on a fantasy. Unfortunately, many of the modelers I know think that their model is the reality.

It also depends on what the purpose of your simulation is. For example the model behind the simulations of Stirbet et al. (1998) was maybe physiologically incorrect, the explorations of the effects of various processes on the simulation kinetics was meaningful.

If you want your simulation to represent the physiological reality, than you have to know all the relevant processes and, in my opinion, you should not ignore the experimental observations. I think there are several lines of experimental evidence showing that there is no PQ-pool quenching in leaves. Even so, almost all modelers make use of PQ pool quenching in their simulations. Again, in my opinion, you are then going towards the realm of fantasy.

So, it is up to you, it can be a science, but in practice it is often not.

Gert Schansker

Sorry Ronald, but I am not competent in this area. 

Considero que es una herramienta de apoyo para muchas ciencias, por ejemplo en las ciencias biologicas la simulacion es muy importante incluso hay estudios que demuestran como la simulacion se puede acercar a la vida real,,,por poner un ejemplo si queremos evaluar el efecto del cambio climatico sin dudas la simulacion es una de las herramientas mas fuertes para poder predecir el cambio de aca a 5 años 10 máximos, mas de 10 creo que ya se estarían introduciendo muchos errores que no son predecibles.

Pero en fin la simulacion no es del todo (a mi opinion ) una ciencia pero si un complemento fundamental

As a scientific discipline by its self ? No. But as an important scientific tool, YES. It saves lives, money and time. The word simulation says already that in fact you have to do with a mental copy. The goal of a perfect simulation is to predict as close as possible the results of your future, well planned, experiments. If the predictions by simulations are positive you run the experiment. If they are negative, mostly you try it as well, because scientists are GAMBLERS.

Best regards Ronaldo,

Reto J. Strasser, e-mail: strasserreto(at)bluewin.ch 

Thank you Gert, Asiel & Reto for your answers!

Dear Gert, your point is really interesting. Could it be possible for you to share with me some references about experimental evidence showing that there is no PQ-pool quenching in leaves?

Thanks in advance for your kind answers!

Ronald