What is life? That seemingly trivial question is in fact impossible to answer in a simple way that will satisfy everyone. But in the process of asking the question we come face to face with the assumptions about what we’re looking for, and our assumptions of what will satisfy us… as explored in the links below.
Border Crossing: a review of What is Life? by Addy Pross
Article (book review) 1200 words Level: all audiences Dr. Michelle Francl, professor of chemistry at Bryn Mawr College and an adjunct scholar of the Vatican Observatory, reviews and summarizes What Is Life? How Chemistry Becomes Biology, a recent book on the definition of life. From the Chemical Heritage Foundation. Border Crossing When it comes to life, how do we draw the border between biology and chemistry? BY MICHELLE FRANCL From Chemical Heritage Magazine, Fall 2014/Winter 2015 Addy Pross. What Is Life? How Chemistry Becomes Biology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. 224 pp. £16.99. Animal, vegetable, or mineral? Anyone who has played 20 Questions on a long car trip knows these are the most fundamental questions that can be asked about an object. Is it alive? Does it think? Unless faced with a particularly crafty opponent, the answer rarely leads a player down the wrong path. The tomato in the salad? Vegetable. The stainless-steel mug? Clearly mineral. But how did the dividing line we see … Continue reading →
God’s Planet
Book 192 pages Level: high school and above This short book was published in 2014 by Harvard University Press. It is by Harvard astronomer and historian of science Owen Gingerich. From the publisher: With exoplanets being discovered daily, Earth is still the only planet we know of that is home to creatures who seek a coherent explanation for the structure, origins, and fate of the universe, and of humanity’s place within it. Today, science and religion are the two major cultural entities on our planet that share this goal of coherent understanding, though their interpretation of evidence differs dramatically. Many scientists look at the known universe and conclude we are here by chance. The renowned astronomer and historian of science Owen Gingerich looks at the same evidence—along with the fact that the universe is comprehensible to our minds—and sees it as proof for the planning and intentions of a Creator-God. He believes that the idea of a universe without God … Continue reading →
Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas
Book 32 pages Level: all audiences This colorful book by Cheryl Bardoe was produced in partnership with the Field Museum in Chicago. It tells about the life of Gregor Mendel and about his work. The book provides a fairly detailed discussion of both his life as a monk and of his experiments, even though it is only 32 pages long and is a “picture book” written to be accessible to grade school students. (A Faith and Science entry for a related book on Mendel written for a more advanced audience is also available—click here). Click here to download a brief excerpt. From the publisher, Abrams Books: The only picture book available about the father of genetics and his pea plants! How do mothers and fathers—whether they are apple trees, sheep, or humans—pass down traits to their children? This question fascinated Gregor Mendel throughout his life. Regarded as the world’s first geneticist, Mendel overcame poverty and obscurity to discover one of the fundamental … Continue reading →
Robert Boyle – A Classical Example of Anglican Apologetics, from “Christian Virtuoso”
Article (book excerpt) 2400 words Level: university Robert Boyle is an important figure in the history of science. Indeed, students in chemistry classes of all levels learn of “Boyle’s Law” of gasses. This is an excerpt from Boyle’s 1690 work The Christian Virtuoso. This article has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. Click here for an excerpt from Inters.org. Click here for this material from Boyle’s original work, courtesy of Archive.org. … Continue reading →
Søren Kierkegaard – A Criticism to Materialistic Naturalism of the 19th Century
Article (book excerpt) 1700 words Level: university Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard offers a strong criticism of those who focus too strongly on science and actually have very limited understanding. Kierkegaard writes: If someone knew that even though he picked every leaf from the flower, separated the fibers of the stem, and observed every part microscopically, and still could not explain what is constitutive in plants—why does he do it then? Or is he not keeping the student in a completely wrong kind of self-contradiction? Instead of saying summarily, “I cannot understand this,” he encumbers the student with a mass of detail and very fascinating, engaging knowledge, which nevertheless always ends with the fact that he cannot, after all, explain the ultimate. But it is precisely this kind of preoccupation with much knowledge which results in one’s losing the impress of the purely ethical. Instead of hungrily beginning to eat, instead of enthusiastically beginning with the ethical, lightly armed and unencumbered … Continue reading →
What is Life?
One hour video of opening talk at the 2015 University of Arizona annual science lecture series. Throughout history, our definition of ‘life’ reflects our assumptions about how the Universe works and why we ask the question. The ways different human cultures, ancient and current, have talked about life provide some sense of how we have defined life, and illustrate the aspects of life that fascinate us. Many cultures used life as an analog to explain the movement of winds and currents, or the motions of the planets. Today we use those mechanical systems as analogs for life. Ultimately, we may not really know what life is until we have discovered more than one independent example of it on places other than Earth we need many diverse examples before we can generalize. But without a definition of what we’re looking for, and why we’re looking, we may have a hard time recognizing life when we find it.
Continue reading →Border Crossing: a review of What is Life? by Addy Pross
Article (book review) 1200 words Level: all audiences Dr. Michelle Francl, professor of chemistry at Bryn Mawr College and an adjunct scholar of the Vatican Observatory, reviews and summarizes What Is Life? How Chemistry Becomes Biology, a recent book on the definition of life. From the Chemical Heritage Foundation. Border Crossing When it comes to life, how do we draw the border between biology and chemistry? BY MICHELLE FRANCL From Chemical Heritage Magazine, Fall 2014/Winter 2015 Addy Pross. What Is Life? How Chemistry Becomes Biology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. 224 pp. £16.99. Animal, vegetable, or mineral? Anyone who has played 20 Questions on a long car trip knows these are the most fundamental questions that can be asked about an object. Is it alive? Does it think? Unless faced with a particularly crafty opponent, the answer rarely leads a player down the wrong path. The tomato in the salad? Vegetable. The stainless-steel mug? Clearly mineral. But how did the dividing line we see … Continue reading →
Robert Boyle – A Classical Example of Anglican Apologetics, from “Christian Virtuoso”
Article (book excerpt) 2400 words Level: university Robert Boyle is an important figure in the history of science. Indeed, students in chemistry classes of all levels learn of “Boyle’s Law” of gasses. This is an excerpt from Boyle’s 1690 work The Christian Virtuoso. This article has been selected by the Interdisciplinary Encyclopedia of Religion and Science (Inters.org), which is edited by the Advanced School for Interdisciplinary Research, operating at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, and directed by Giuseppe Tanzella-Nitti. Click here for an excerpt from Inters.org. Click here for this material from Boyle’s original work, courtesy of Archive.org. … Continue reading →
Søren Kierkegaard – A Criticism to Materialistic Naturalism of the 19th Century
Article (book excerpt) 1700 words Level: university Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard offers a strong criticism of those who focus too strongly on science and actually have very limited understanding. Kierkegaard writes: If someone knew that even though he picked every leaf from the flower, separated the fibers of the stem, and observed every part microscopically, and still could not explain what is constitutive in plants—why does he do it then? Or is he not keeping the student in a completely wrong kind of self-contradiction? Instead of saying summarily, “I cannot understand this,” he encumbers the student with a mass of detail and very fascinating, engaging knowledge, which nevertheless always ends with the fact that he cannot, after all, explain the ultimate. But it is precisely this kind of preoccupation with much knowledge which results in one’s losing the impress of the purely ethical. Instead of hungrily beginning to eat, instead of enthusiastically beginning with the ethical, lightly armed and unencumbered … Continue reading →
What is Life?
One hour video of opening talk at the 2015 University of Arizona annual science lecture series. Throughout history, our definition of ‘life’ reflects our assumptions about how the Universe works and why we ask the question. The ways different human cultures, ancient and current, have talked about life provide some sense of how we have defined life, and illustrate the aspects of life that fascinate us. Many cultures used life as an analog to explain the movement of winds and currents, or the motions of the planets. Today we use those mechanical systems as analogs for life. Ultimately, we may not really know what life is until we have discovered more than one independent example of it on places other than Earth we need many diverse examples before we can generalize. But without a definition of what we’re looking for, and why we’re looking, we may have a hard time recognizing life when we find it.
Continue reading →God’s Planet
Book 192 pages Level: high school and above This short book was published in 2014 by Harvard University Press. It is by Harvard astronomer and historian of science Owen Gingerich. From the publisher: With exoplanets being discovered daily, Earth is still the only planet we know of that is home to creatures who seek a coherent explanation for the structure, origins, and fate of the universe, and of humanity’s place within it. Today, science and religion are the two major cultural entities on our planet that share this goal of coherent understanding, though their interpretation of evidence differs dramatically. Many scientists look at the known universe and conclude we are here by chance. The renowned astronomer and historian of science Owen Gingerich looks at the same evidence—along with the fact that the universe is comprehensible to our minds—and sees it as proof for the planning and intentions of a Creator-God. He believes that the idea of a universe without God … Continue reading →
Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas
Book 32 pages Level: all audiences This colorful book by Cheryl Bardoe was produced in partnership with the Field Museum in Chicago. It tells about the life of Gregor Mendel and about his work. The book provides a fairly detailed discussion of both his life as a monk and of his experiments, even though it is only 32 pages long and is a “picture book” written to be accessible to grade school students. (A Faith and Science entry for a related book on Mendel written for a more advanced audience is also available—click here). Click here to download a brief excerpt. From the publisher, Abrams Books: The only picture book available about the father of genetics and his pea plants! How do mothers and fathers—whether they are apple trees, sheep, or humans—pass down traits to their children? This question fascinated Gregor Mendel throughout his life. Regarded as the world’s first geneticist, Mendel overcame poverty and obscurity to discover one of the fundamental … Continue reading →