Perspectives in Biology and Medicine

REDU CTIONISM: SEVEN LESSONS THOMAS PETER BENNETT* 1. ATOMS COHN all Life is P and S too. K and Na the cell knows, Mg and Ca too. 2. MOLECULES Acids, many, fatty and amino Bases, several A T G and C Sugars, few 5 C and 6 C Water, simple H two O. 3. BONDS Carbonyls to aminos peptide linked Phosphoryls to carbon diester joined Carbons by oxygens glycoside bonded Exalt the hydrogen bridge. * Department of Biological Science, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32306. 578 I Thomas Peter Bennett · Reductionism 4.ATP The solar furnace; Life-giving energy. Light converted; Lipmann bonds formed. Metabolic dynamos; ~Phosphate generated. Water splits ATP; Life is moved. 5.PROTEINS Twenty universal peptide-glued Primary structures form. Helically twisted hydrogen bonded Secondary structures form. Super-coiled groups interacted Tertiary structures form. Now come together mysteriously stuck Quaternary structures form. 6.DNA and RNA Two basic types, many structures Four components similarly linked. Watson and Crick double helixed Novel features, Life interest. 7.QDNA^RNA-^PROTEIN Flow information, the gene has spoken T direct A, G do C, all in vice versa. Semiconserve, growth at the fork While enzymes, snip, zip, and link. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine · Summer 1973 | 579 Single strands that are transcribed From words of DNA to language RNA Carry forth from helix double A message program: Life to be. Improbable events that always occur The bases of Life translate Three by three, three to one The code of Life moves on. 580 I Thomas Peter Bennett · Reductionism ...