%0 Journal Article
%T Toward a general theory of evolution: Extending Darwinian theory to inanimate matter
%A Addy Pross
%J Journal of Systems Chemistry
%D 2011
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1759-2208-2-1
%X Despite the enormous developments in molecular biology during the past half century, the science of biology appears to have reached a conceptual impasse. Woese [1] captured both the nature and the magnitude of the problem with his comment: "Biology today is no more fully understood in principle than physics was a century or so ago. In both cases the guiding vision has (or had) reached its end, and in both, a new, deeper, more invigorating representation of reality is (or was) called for." The issue raised by Woese is a fundamental one - to understand the genesis and nature of biological organization and to address biology's holistic, rather than just its molecular nature. Kauffman [2] expressed the difficulty in somewhat different terms: "....we know many of the parts and many of the processes. But what makes a cell alive is still not clear to us. The center is still mysterious." In effect, the provocative question, "What is Life?", raised by Schr£żdinger over half a century ago [3], remains unresolved, a source of unending debate. Thus, despite the recent dramatic insights into the molecular character of living systems, biology of the 21st century is continuing to struggle with the very essence of biological reality.At the heart of biology's crisis of identity lies its problematic relationship with the two sciences that deal with inanimate matter - physics and chemistry. While the on-going debate regarding the role of reductionist thinking in biology exemplifies the difficulties at a methodological level, the problematic relationship manifests itself beyond issues of methodology and philosophy of science. Indeed, the answers to two fundamental questions, central to understanding the life issue, remain frustratingly out of reach. First, how did life emerge, and, second, how would one go about synthesizing a simple living system? Biology cannot avoid these questions because, together with the 'what is life?' question, they form the three apexes of the triangle of holi
%U http://www.jsystchem.com/content/2/1/1