Volume 25, Number 6 · April 20, 1978
Koestler's Solution
By Stephen Jay Gould
Janus: A Summing Up
by Arthur Koestler
Random House, 354 pp., $10.00
Theodor Schwann, a founder of cell theory in the mid-nineteenth century, described life as 'nothing but the form under which substances capable of imbibition crystallize.' This kind of reductionism did have a certain vogue in Schwann's day, and its vestiges continue to color and constrain biological thought—most notably in the early and heady days of DNA, when some over-zealous biochemists thought they might render all of life's complexity as a one-way readout of instructions coded on chromosomes.
Review, 3581 words
To read the full text of this piece, please choose one of the following options:
|
If you are already a subscriber to the Review's electronic edition, please sign in: |
To subscribe to the electronic edition, please press the button below. |
To purchase access to this article for $3, please press the button below. |