For the past two weeks I have been inching through Investigations by Stuart Kauffman. I am only half way through the work that some have called as influential as Schrodinger's What is Life?, but already I can see for what Kauffman lacks in answers he makes up for in scope. Investigations is a declaration of a journey just begun, one to define a theory of the living organism. Most simply, Kauffman describes life as any system able to perform autocatalysis and perform a thermodynamic work cycle, that is - a system able to split itself in two and able to extract energy from its surrounding system. On earth all living things possess DNA, the blueprint of the cell; RNA, the cell's messengers of instructions; and proteins, the cell's doers. Kauffman elevates his discussion of a theory of life by positing that these might not be necessary in all forms of life. The current facts presented in a General Biology textbook are merely the rules of Earth Biology, and may not be as pervasive as we have thought. Life is out there, but without a proper theory can we ever truly define it?
Seeing a video by Kauffman on edge.org when I was 17 years old firmly cemented me to a path in biology, be it theoretical or otherwise. His views of a theoretical biology have been just as large an influence on this blog as my own dreams.
To discover the true stuff of life...
If only, if only...
No comments:
Post a Comment