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George Henry Lewes (18 Apr 1817 - 28 Nov 1878) English philosopher and naturalist whose early career began as a writer and critic, but he later turned to popularizing science. He was the common-law husband of Mary Ann Evans (pen-name George Eliot). Short biography of George Henry Lewes >>

George Henry Lewes
“Biological Atom”

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“A cell is regarded as the true biological atom.”

— George Henry Lewes

From The Physiology of Common Life (1860)

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Although George Henry Lewes began his career as a critic and writer, he later turned to an interest in the natural sciences. Although he had no formal training, he wrote books effective at popularizing science to the layman.

He concluded his second volume on The Physiology of Common Life (1860), with a chapter on 'Life and Death' in which he defined life as

“Life is the dynamical condition of the Organism.”

He continued with a consideration of Cell Life, in which he made the statement that is the subject quote above:

“Biology has undergone a renovation almost as great as that which Chemistry underwent after the labours of Lavoisier. The last twenty years, indeed, will be known in history as the cell-epoch … A cell is regarded as the true biological atom. Nothing is living but cells, or what can be directly traced back to cells. However great a departure,from the cell-form may be disclosed in an anatomical investigation — as in fibres, vessels, bones, membranes — a morphological investigation detects that all these were cells in their origin. As a cell the organism commences; all through its career, a large part of the organism is made of cells, and the rest is of transformed cells, or cell-products.”

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Nature bears long with those who wrong her. She is patient under abuse. But when abuse has gone too far, when the time of reckoning finally comes, she is equally slow to be appeased and to turn away her wrath. (1882) -- Nathaniel Egleston, who was writing then about deforestation, but speaks equally well about the danger of climate change today.

Carl Sagan: In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) ...(more by Sagan)

Albert Einstein: I used to wonder how it comes about that the electron is negative. Negative-positive—these are perfectly symmetric in physics. There is no reason whatever to prefer one to the other. Then why is the electron negative? I thought about this for a long time and at last all I could think was “It won the fight!” ...(more by Einstein)

Richard Feynman: It is the facts that matter, not the proofs. Physics can progress without the proofs, but we can't go on without the facts ... if the facts are right, then the proofs are a matter of playing around with the algebra correctly. ...(more by Feynman)

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