The Return of the Blind Watchmaker

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Notes

^1. Monod, Chance and Necessity.

^2. Thus proteins react to this “landscape” by self-assembly—which is to say, they are not born as nerves, muscles or glands but adapt themselves as such in conformity with their surroundings.

^3. The BZ reaction recurs in slime mould colonies in search of a location suitable for fruiting. Directional signals despatched from the rim to the inside trigger an analogous throbbing reaction which serves the colony to enact changes of direction. Similarly, the bacterial pink bloom to be observed at certain times in Antarctic regions enact BZ-type motions to propel themselves.

^4. Yeast is known to be endowed with genome-editing capacity.

^5. Kauffman. At Home in the Universe; Prigogine and Stengers, Order Out of Chaos.

^6. See De Duve, Vital Dust.