Spallanzani demonstrated the principle of pasteurization
and scooped Louis Pasteur
by ninety-five years.
Vital principle
Invisible parasites
bacteria, viruses
too small to see
infect my body.
I itch; I cannot help it;
I become feverish; I grow hungry;
I eat certain leaves and barks
and I am cured.
An idea occurs to me
and I cannot
get it out of my head.
I try to test the idea
and find that it violates
a principle of nature.
Living things inhabit everything
in the air, land, and sea
in rocks, in soil,
in every drop of water.
Obsesssed,
I wash my hands
although they are already clean
and the water makes my fingers itch.
Miracles
Seems like miracles
strangely inhabiting
everything around us.
Unidentified energies
silently empower
impossible creatures
too numerous to count.
Imagination generates reasons
out of fears.
Reason generates causes
out of hopes.
Surprise generates miracles
when we can’t see the causes.
We can’t explain these things.
If this were pure luck, good or bad,
it would be time to count our blessings.
Worms have been found in rocks at the bottom of a diamond
mine; bacteria has been found deep in volcanic rock.
The theory of spontaneous generation originated with
Aristotle, who wrote that the “vital heat” contained
in air and water was responsible. Needham exposed his broths to
air as they cooled after boiling (insufficiently to kill microbial
endospores in the broths), not imagining that air could contain
microbes and microbial endospores responsible for what he thought
were generated spontaneously.
Apes and chimpanzees have been found to
“self-medicate” by eating particular astringent leaves
and inner barks to cure themselves of malaria and worms.
Worms have been found in rocks at the bottom of a diamond mine; bacteria has been found deep in volcanic rock.
The theory of spontaneous generation originated with Aristotle, who wrote that the “vital heat” contained in air and water was responsible. Needham exposed his broths to air as they cooled after boiling (insufficiently to kill microbial endospores in the broths), not imagining that air could contain microbes and microbial endospores responsible for what he thought were generated spontaneously.
Apes and chimpanzees have been found to “self-medicate” by eating particular astringent leaves and inner barks to cure themselves of malaria and worms.
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