A review of multiscale science: Materials, biology, multiscale data analysis and examples from complex physiological systems

Multiscale science is an emerging scientific field that spans many disciplines, including physics, chemistry, materials science, mathematics, and chemical engineering, etc. Therefore, the multiscale methodology has received increasing attention from many branches and researchers. This review firstly introduces the general developmental situation including theoretical basis, scales, and relevance, as well as some progress in several fields. Based on the facts that it would be impossible to carry out a serious discussion deeply with such a broad view, we secondly adopt a narrower viewpoint. Unlike most of the papers focusing on the multiscale problems in chemistry or materials science, we will emphasize the issues in data analysis of complex physiological systems where the multiscale character is the dominating role and is exploited innovatively. Finally, this paper elucidates the future challenges of multiscale science.