Complexity, variability, and the behavioral layer of gerophysics: a commentary on Unfried et al. (2026)

The report of the Global Conference on Gerophysics [Unfried et al., 2026] aimed to "bridge changes across biological scales: from subcellular to organism level", with dynamical systems, entropy, network theory, and stochastic processes as its theoretical pillars. In this commentary, we contend that this ambition can be extended to account for the organism-environment interactions as expressed through behavioral dynamics, thereby adding a continuous layer to the field. Integrating such ideas within Gerophysics would allow interventions to be designed and tested simultaneously at the molecular, network and behavioral levels. Gerophysics would thus benefit from integrating researchers working at the organism-environment scale.