ALEKSANDER OPARIN (1894-1980)

1936 – Russia

‘In the Earth’s early atmosphere simple inorganic compounds combined to form complex organic compounds, which formed the first living cell’

ALEKSANDER OPARIN

Viewed correctly, life is compatible with the basic principles of physics and chemistry.

Life is possible, but entropy increases. The late nineteenth century way of looking at biological systems fits into this scheme – looking for patterns in large numbers – in assigning precise properties to classes and groups, not to individuals. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, an organism expended vital force in order to perform its work of synthesis and morphogenesis; at the end of the century, the belief was that it consumed energy.

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