Tangled Bank of the Primeval Cell

In our present state of ignorance, we have a choice between two contrasting images to represent our view of the possible structure of a creature newly emerged at the first threshold of life. One image is the replicator model of Eigen, a molecular structure tightly linked and centrally controlled, replicating itself with considerable precision, achieving ho-meostasis by strict adherence to a rigid pattern. The other image is the "tangled bank" of Darwin, an image which Darwin put at the end of...

 Stones are Chaos

The difference between a piece of stone and an atom is that an atom is highly organised, whereas the stone is not. The atom is a pattern, and the molecule is a pattern, and the crystal is a pattem; but the stone, although it is made up of these pattems, is just a mere confusion. It's only when life appears that you begin to get organisation on a larger scale. Life takes the atoms and molecules and crystals; but, instead of making a mess of them like the stone, it combines them into new and mo...

 Chemistry as the Foundation of Science

Chemistry I deem to be the foundation of all other science, and in a manner pf speaking to comprise all other branches of science. As matter and motion comprise everything we can behold or conceive, and as Chemistry is an investigation of the properties of matter, with the causes and effects of its various combinations, it is evidently the most important part of science, or rather, the first and last part of it. The cultivation of the earth—the cookery of our food—its quantity and quality...

 All Biological Processes Involve Water

Life began in water, and every single function of life takes place in an aqueous environment. A profound way of classification in chemistry is the relation and interaction between molecules, or groups within molecules, and water. Molecules (or parts of molecules) can attract water in which case they are called hydrophilic. As the opposite extreme they can strive to avoid water; these molecules or molecular parts are termed hydrophobic. Most biomolecules possess both these properties; they are...