Recent developments in sociobiology and the scientific method.

We fear that future economic and political ‘selection forces’ upon universities will further push academic roles towards the extremes of our triangle (i.e. towards role specialisation). For example, Mervis [6] recently highlighted that US universities will be (or already are) under increasing economic pressure, with shrinking support from government and private or industrial sources, a situation aggravated by increased running costs. Previously, teaching and research were always considered as symbiotic, with many key individuals found in the centre of the triangle (Figure 1).We believe that teaching is informed by research, whereas research gains clarity from the expectation to interact and explain the basic principles to bright youngminds. Universities therefore surely need a broad range of interacting academic strategies and cultures to maintain system resilience and long-term survival chances for all. Similar to ecosystems, universities might now be completely unforgiving of failure at any level, but they surely they cannot survive without diversity.