Quotation #3

Franklin M. Harold is Emeritus Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and author of a book in which he connects the power and mystique of life to its many uniquely individual and underlying interactive facets. Simply stated, he argues that the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. This quote is from his book's preface:

“The quest for an answer to the riddle, “What is Life?” is one of the grand themes that resonate through the scientific conversation of this century—a period whose science is also its singular glory. That riddle embraces and transcends the subject matter of all the biological sciences, and much of physical science as well. A physics that has no place for life is as impoverished as would be a biology not informed by chemistry. The study of life as a natural phenomenon, a fundamental feature of the universe, must not be allowed to slip into the black hole of departmental tribalism.”
-Franklin M. Harold, The Way of the Cell: Molecules, Organisms and the Order of Life, 2001