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What is Life? The Physical Aspect of
the Living Cell. With Mind and Matter and Autobiographical
Sketches.
WHAT IS LIFE?
". . . the laws of
physics and chemistry are statistical throughout."1a
"It is these
chromosomes . . . that contain in some kind of
code-script the entire pattern of the individual's future
development and of its functioning in the mature state.
Every complete set of chromosomes contains the
full code
. . ."1b
UPANISHADS
LEIBNIZ
MEDAWAR
DAWKINS
"We have just introduced
the term gene for the
hypothetical material
carrier of a definite hereditary feature . . ."1c
MEDAWAR
DAWKINS
"In Darwin's
theory, you just have to substitute 'mutations' for his 'slight
accidental variations' (just as quantum theory
substitutes 'quantum jump' for 'continuous transfer of
energy'). In all other respects little change was
necessary in Darwin's theory . . ."1d
PLANCK
"How would we express in
terms of the statistical theory the marvelous faculty of a
living organism, by which it delays the decay into
thermodynamical equilibrium (death)? . . .
the device by
which an organism maintains itself stationary at a fairly high
level of orderliness . . . really consists in continually
sucking orderliness from its environment."1e
MIND AND MATTER
"The material world has only been
constructed at the price of taking the self, that is, mind, out
of it, removing it; mind is not part of it . . ."1f
BOHM
"Matter and energy
seem granular in structure, and so does 'life', but not
so mind."1g
PLANCK
"Nature has no
reverence towards life. Nature treats life as though it
were the most valueless thing in the world. . . . Nature does not
act by purposes."1h
"The sensation of
colour cannot be accounted for by the physicist's objective
picture of light-waves."1i
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