98 Can Science Explain Life? 



ficial devices this cannot be accomplished, but in 

 a chemically organized structure like living mat- 

 ter the atoms which form the margins of the 

 passageways may behave like Maxwell's demons 

 so as to close or open such passageways accord- 

 ing to whether the approaching molecules or ions 

 are of one sort or another. 



The same result may also be brought about by 

 chemical reactions. For example, a carbohydrate 

 molecule may attach itself to one end of a spira- 

 zine cluster in such a position that upon becom- 

 ing oxidized it will send the carbonic acid mole- 

 cules into the tiny passageways towards the op- 

 posite end of the cluster. 



In the ideal case just considered there resulted 

 only the building up of a simple fibrous or cylin- 

 drical structure, but in cases where the clusters 

 of spirazines are arranged and interconnected 

 according to more complex patterns, new mor- 

 phogenetic activities will appear and new be- 

 haviors will be manifested, but the underlying 

 principles will remain the same. Since each in- 

 dividual living cell, just like every vertebrate 

 animal, is under substantially the same system 

 of internal electric control, we should expect to 

 find in all cases the same coordination of action, 

 the same governing motives, and the same pur- 

 posive behavior in the interests of the organism. 



