Concluding remarks

As evidenced by this contributed volume communication is multifarious. It exists among organisms but also between cells and in networks, and even possesses inorganic properties as a result of collective organization. The approaches that can be adopted to study communication are similarly varied-from the mechanistic to the functional, and from cell biology to linguistics. This book has formulated the synthesis that this volume has achieved in a personal sociobiological view that encompasses both a reductionist and a systems biology view. The expanding toolbox with which to dissect mechanisms requires a robust interdisciplinary logic and sound theory to achieve the functional balance needed to make further progress in the evolutionary study of communication.