Abstract
When we approach life at the level of the single cell and enter the domain of cellular biochemistry/biophysics, we find (contrary to the picture given in standard textbooks) a highly fragmented status rerum, largely dominated by an air of reductionism (viz., 1+1 = 2). Most attempts at understanding the essence of the “living state” at this level have a materialistic basis. Such an outlook all too often fails to relate the fact, that living systems are, by their nature, defined in a dynamic sense. Hence, we should study the cell by “reducing” it, not to its elements of matter, rather to its elementary processes. A “process” view imparts an emphasis on energetics and energy flow. Here, we are obliged to apply a lesson gleaned from physics — that of matter/energy duality in physical systems. One finds, that matter is the substance of things, while energy is the moving principle /2/.
“The visible world is neither matter nor spirit, but the invisible organization of energy” /l/.
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Welch, G.R., Berry, M.N. (1983). Long-range Energy Continua in the Living Cell: Protochemical Considerations. In: Fröhlich, H., Kremer, F. (eds) Coherent Excitations in Biological Systems. Proceedings in Life Sciences. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69186-7_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-69186-7_10
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