The Mechanism of Life

Mineral growths that resemble stems, roots and living tissues provide Stéphane Leduc with a way to examine the boundary between life and physical chemistry. In this scientific treatise, translated by W. Deane Butcher, he argues that the forces shaping organisms can be studied through solutions, diffusion and osmosis. The opening places nutrition and the exchange of matter and energy at the centre of his account, while the chapters move through colloids, crystallization and the production of forms resembling those found in nature.

Concrete experiments give the argument its texture. Rhythmic chemical reactions produce curves compared with the pulse, and a drop of ink in salt water becomes a study of cohesion. Leduc connects these observations to his case for synthetic biology and spontaneous generation. Readers interested in the history of biological ideas can follow how he builds a broad theory from visible laboratory effects, with explanations that link familiar organic forms to the behaviour of liquids.