Friday quote: Franklin Harold on the fundamentally mysterious nature of life
by KrauzeThis Friday's quote comes from the article, "The Mother of All Problems" by molecular biologist Franklin Harold, webbed on Steve Jones' website.
Living things are so much part of everyday experience that we scarcely realize how strange they are, and how sharply they differ from inanimate objects. All organisms, from bacteria to humans, are exceedingly intricate molecular systems that have the unique capacity to make themselves. On the level of the individual, each one grows and reproduces its own kind. Collectively, on a timescale of millennia, they continuously make themselves over, adapting to changes in their external and internal environments. Nothing else in the known universe has such powers. Living things obey all the laws of chemistry and physics, and we have learned an enormous amount about the molecular mechanisms that underlie all biological operations. We know much less about how these components and processes are organized in space, and almost nothing about their origin when the world was young. Our knowledge is vast, but our understanding is partial and full of gaps; for all its familiarity and ubiquity, life remains fundamentally mysterious.
Those interested in reading more from Harold should check out his brilliant book, The Way of the Cell.
May 26th, 2006 at 6:41 pm
The reason life is seems so mysterious is that life is not fundamentally based on molecular machines (although it certainly makes use of them!)
If we look at life as a holistic, field-like, shall we go so far as to say "teleological" phenomenon, suddenly the pieces start to fit together. . .
Comment by MatthewCromer — May 26, 2006 @ 6:41 pm