Abstract
MAN and animals and plants all live, each in its degree. Lower than these is matter itself. Does it live? Do crystals live in their mother-liquid? In general, is the universe itself a living thing? These are the questions which a professor of physics of Munich attempts to answer in this small volume. We learn that the variations of matter, and those variations of plants and animals which are taken as special evidence of their vitality, are linked together in an unbroken chain. On the other hand, an exception is made in respect to the ultimate structure of the atom itself. In fact, a well defined boundary is found to separate substances, of which inorganic bodies consist from substances which are necessary for the formation of organic bodies.
Das Leben im Weltall.
By Dr. L. Zehnder. Pp. 125. (Leipzig: J. C. B. Mohr, 1904.) Price 2.50 marks
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Das Leben im Weltall . Nature 70, 453 (1904). https://doi.org/10.1038/070453b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/070453b0