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dusters of such clouds of phantastic and changing shape. A great 

 number of changes can occur within these clouds which may all be 

 covered by the same letter-dash-letter symbol, which thus is in- 

 adequate for their description. Biological phenomena, possibly, are 

 to a great extent the expression of such subtler changes which take 

 place in dimensions unknown to classical chemistry. They belong 

 to the realm of quantum mechanics and can be described only in 

 its language. 



Biochemistry has taken no cognizance of this progress yet, or 

 has done so only to a small extent, sporadically, and is still a 

 Lucretian or Epicurian letter-dash-letter science. Accordingly, it 

 has made no progress in the analysis of the reactions which cannot 

 be described by these symbols. Hence the "oscuro" of the 

 "chiaroscuro." 



This is not meant as a reproach to the biochemist. The author 

 spent half a year at the Institute for Advanced Studies, at Prince- 

 ton, enjoying this wonderful institution's boundless hospitality. 

 He did so in order to be able to rub elbows with those who know 

 most about electrons, hoping to find help for a better understand- 

 ing of biological phenomena. He found a profound and sympa- 

 thetic interest in biology. However, when he revealed that living 

 systems contain more than two electrons, physicists turned their 

 backs on him in terror, mathematical difficulties becoming insur- 

 mountable. 



Lucretian biochemistry involves the assumption that no inter- 

 action can take place between molecules without their touching one 

 another. Support is given in this book to the idea that manifold 

 interactions can take place without such bodily contact, either 

 through energy bands or through the electromagnetic field, which 

 thus appears with water and its structures as the matrix of bio- 

 logical reactions. 



In accordance with the basic concepts of Lucretian chemistry, 

 biology dealt with molecules and their aggregates as isolated units, 

 separated by the water which fills the space between them. The 



