Film Reactions as a New Approach to Biology

Abstract

TOWARDS the end of the last century the biologist and physiologist were agreed that the biological entity was the whole living unit. This century has seen an attack on biological problems by the physical and organic chemist. The study of the living unit has been dropped, and in its place we find investigations on specialized processes such as oxidation and reduction or catalytic reactions. It is an unfortunate fact, as the late Sir William Hardy clearly pointed out, that in this method of approach the mechanism of the co-ordination or the integration of the activities of an assemblage of cells must remain insoluble. It is this very point which I think deserves some consideration. We must conclude that the mechanism of integration is at any rate dependent on a pre-existing organization of at least the major operative portions of the assemblage of cells. This raises a number of important problems such as: what types of organization are to be found in living material; how far control over chemical reactions can be effected by modification of the type or extent of such organization; and again how far different types of organization can modify such important factors as the chemical or physical state of a material or chemical equilibria in reacting systems; and lastly, what new properties or reactions make their appearance as a direct result of organization.