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bation is started up by oxygen and is contributed to by the triplets 

 formed under its priming action. Aerobic life thus means quali- 

 tatively a different type of life, which has the perturbed electro- 

 magnetic field as its foundation and triplet excitations as its instru- 

 ment. Warburg has repeatedly emphasized the importance of 

 structure, oxidation being bound to structure, while fermentation 

 is not. We could also use, instead of "structure," the words "solid 

 state," by which physics means an orderly state with periodicities. 

 In this book we have extended this idea of structure and order- 

 liness beyond protein or protein-lipin complexes into the water 

 and shown that the two structures form one single unique system. 

 It seems likely that only structures can build structures, that is that 

 only the structure to which oxidation is bound can build around 

 itself extensive water structures which complete it. The water 

 structures thus generated play then a basic role in the handling of 

 the excited electrons and can thus be expected to play also a funda- 

 mental role in the energy transmissions between oxidation and the 

 systems which are driven by its energy. There are reasons to sup- 

 pose (or no reasons to exclude) that there are more direct connec- 

 tions between oxidation and biological functions than the connec- 

 tion over ^P's, and it seems rather likely that oxidative energies 

 need not necessarily be invested into '^P's before they can be used 

 by the cell but that biological systems may also be coupled more 

 directly to oxidation and use its excitation energies. The immediate 

 cessation of activity in the central nervous system on removal of 

 oxygen or the poisoning of its activator by cyanide plead for such 

 direct relations. So if the energy of triplet excitation is used also 

 to maintain the system of structures which generates these excita- 

 tions, the whole system has to collapse, structures must disinte- 

 grate in a vicious circle if anything goes wrong. 



Fermentation and oxidation thus do not mean merely alternate 

 pathways of energy production. They mean a different way of 

 living. Fermentation, to which the cell is driven under anaerobic 

 conditions, is based on group transfer reactions which demand no 



