(Ebook) Life Evolving: Molecules, Mind, and Meaning by Christian de Duve ISBN 9780195156058, 0195156056

(Ebook) Life Evolving: Molecules, Mind, and Meaning by Christian de Duve ISBN 9780195156058, 0195156056

Vitalism is a profoundly science-ejected concept, though many CAM or 'natural health' cabals falsely claim that vitalism survives scientific scrutiny. Some of my favorite quotes in this book by this 1974 Nobel laureate: "until recently, the answer to the question 'what is life?' posed no problem. Life, it was said, is 'animated matter,' from the Latin anima, soul. This, of course, was no explanation at all. It simply attributed to the soul, or vital spirit, all that was not understood about life [...aka] vitalism [p.007...] this notion was first contradicted in 1828 [...per] Wohler [urea...] and it was definitively disproved in 1897 [...per] Buchner [yeast juice...&] space chemistry has shattered the last refuge[s] of vitalism [p.048...] we know that there is no such thing as a vital principle [p.053]." Science has discarded vitalism for more than 100 years. -r.c.