WHAT IS PHYSICAL LIFE 



abiogenesis from ancient times, because a 

 priori there seemed to be no logical reason 

 for denying that as physical life must have 

 had a beginning once on this earth, this 

 might happen again. This conclusion is 

 all the more natural for those who main- 

 tain the doctrine of the physico-chemical 

 origin of life, because all the physical and 

 chemical elements are yet with us as ef- 

 fective as ever. Repeated attempts, there- 

 fore, have been made to produce life arti- 

 ficially, and occasionally we hear of such 

 experiments being apparently successful. 

 But to be living, such an artificial speci- 

 men must be capable of a cell formation 

 which then goes on to reproduce itself by 

 cell division or mitosis, and then continues 

 to do so independently for successive gen- 

 erations. If it can do nothing of the kind, 

 then this supposed living substance is a 

 delusion. 



But it would seem as if this subject 

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