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Koestler, Arthur - Janus - On Nature's subassemblies
Identifier
002676
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Arthur Koestler - Janus
The same four chemical bases in the chromosomal nucleic acid DNA constitute the 4 letter alphabet of the genetic codes throughout the animal kingdom; the same make of organelles function in their cells; the same chemical fuel – ATP – provides their energy; the same contractile proteins serve the motions of the amoeba and of human muscles...
Whereas craft consists of single unique objects, manufacture is from sub-assemblies – it does not necessarily have to produce identical end results, but design is speeded up enormously and reproduction is aided greatly....
Dazzled by the prodigious variety of plants and animals, biologists were inclined to pay less attention to the uniformity of those basic units ….. and the limitations which it imposed on all existing and possible forms of life on this planet.
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The same standard models of organelles function in the cells of mice and men; the same ratchet device using a contractile protein serves the motion of amoeba and of the concert pianist's fingers; the same four chemicals constitute the basic alphabet in which heredity is encoded throughout the animal and plant kingdoms.