Waves and fields in bio-ontologies

Modern bio-ontologies aim for interoperability through alignment to a common upper level ontology and the use of common relationships. A precondition for such alignment is that all of the entities that are needed for annotation of the data for the domain in question are able to be represented beneath the same upper level ontology. Waves, such as electrocardiography, brain waves and sound waves, are relevant in many different domains within the life sciences. Working within the framework of the Basic Formal Ontology, we will discuss the classification of waves. We begin by evaluating existing bio-ontology terms for waves and fields and – where applicable – their classification beneath BFO, finding quite divergent representations. Thereafter, we will present our strategy for unification, first considering those waves, such as sound waves, that are borne by some physical medium, such as air, and subsequently considering electromagnetic waves and fields, which are of particular relevance for ontologies in neuroscience.