BioSystems, 8 (1977) 275 @ Elsevier/North-Holland Scientific
275 Publishers,
Ltd.
ANATOMY AND THERMODYNAMICS * ALBERT SZENT-GYORGYI
Workshop of the National Foundation of Cancer Research at the Marine Biological Laboratory, MA, U.S.A. (Received
October
20th, 1976)
With the departing of Lars Onsager, science has iosi me of its leaders, and we as scientists, all lost a friend. His friendly and kind disposition and his goodwill were written ii&o his face. I have met him but rarely and our contact was superficial, but I looked upon him as one of my more intimate friends. The main problem of biology, bio-logy, the study of life, is: what is life? In this simple form the question has no sense because life, ds such, does not exist. Nobody has seen “Life”. What we can see and study are systems of matter which have this wonderful quality of being alive. The proper question is thus not what is life, but what is this wonderful quality of being alive? There being no function without an underlying structure, there are two approaches to
edicsted Onsager.
Woods Hole,
to the memory
of Lars
this problem: structure and functjon. Being the fourth generation of anatomists, it was natural that I should become an anatomist too. I have begun as an anatomist and remained an anatomist till the present day. Chemistry, for me, is anatomy in the at)amic or subatomic dimension. In a way; even quantum mechanics is also an anatomical me, and I am happy only if I can se mind’s eye, the smallest particles, in a reaction, in space, as they attract, repel or hold one another. So, I had for Onsager, a profound admiration, even a ki his ability to seiz with his inw natural phenomena and laws selves, without being weighed ter. His departing was a great personal loss to me.
275 Publishers,
Ltd.
ANATOMY AND THERMODYNAMICS * ALBERT SZENT-GYORGYI
Workshop of the National Foundation of Cancer Research at the Marine Biological Laboratory, MA, U.S.A. (Received
October
20th, 1976)
With the departing of Lars Onsager, science has iosi me of its leaders, and we as scientists, all lost a friend. His friendly and kind disposition and his goodwill were written ii&o his face. I have met him but rarely and our contact was superficial, but I looked upon him as one of my more intimate friends. The main problem of biology, bio-logy, the study of life, is: what is life? In this simple form the question has no sense because life, ds such, does not exist. Nobody has seen “Life”. What we can see and study are systems of matter which have this wonderful quality of being alive. The proper question is thus not what is life, but what is this wonderful quality of being alive? There being no function without an underlying structure, there are two approaches to
edicsted Onsager.
Woods Hole,
to the memory
of Lars
this problem: structure and functjon. Being the fourth generation of anatomists, it was natural that I should become an anatomist too. I have begun as an anatomist and remained an anatomist till the present day. Chemistry, for me, is anatomy in the at)amic or subatomic dimension. In a way; even quantum mechanics is also an anatomical me, and I am happy only if I can se mind’s eye, the smallest particles, in a reaction, in space, as they attract, repel or hold one another. So, I had for Onsager, a profound admiration, even a ki his ability to seiz with his inw natural phenomena and laws selves, without being weighed ter. His departing was a great personal loss to me.
