Marquet, P. A.,Allen, A. P.,Brown, J. H.,Dunne, J. A.,Enquist, B. J.,Gillooly, J. F.,Gowaty, P. A.,Harte, J.,Hubbell, S. P.,Okie, J. G.,Ostling, A.,Ritchie, M.,Storch, D.,West, G. B.
Letter, concluding paragraph: "We would like to end our letter by saying that, to a large extent, our article was motivated by the mounting dismissal of the value of theory in the biological sciences. This is particularly acute in systems biology and ecology, disciplines that are currently awash in data. The complexity of the ecological challenges that we face as a species requires our best effort to find efficient solutions based in understanding how nature works. And we think this can ultimately be achieved only by developing efficient theories based on underlying first principles."