that protoplasm supported life by molecular forces,
that it’s no more meaningful to say
that protoplasm contains the principle of life
than to say that water contains the principle of aquosity.
Vitalism
A creative force, a spark of life
was believed to give each cell its motive force.
Otherwise, what would distinguish a living cell
from a leaky bag of lumpy juices?
The vital principle, moreover, could
never be reduced to a physical mechanism.
Scientists tried to prove them wrong,
assembled the stuff of protoplasm in a test tube,
but it didn’t come alive.
Some opinions from the eighteenth century
seem archaic to us now, but we may still accept
that the whole is greater than the parts
and that some mysteries remain mysterious.
Ectoplasm
Protoplasm, “first form,” is not to be confused
with ectoplasm, “external form,” an alleged
form of matter exuded through pores of a psychic medium
and draped over spiritual beings to make them visible,
but we don’t have anything more to say about that,
except that people can call things what they want.
The term ectoplasm is also used
for the outer portion of the cytoplasm of a cell,
which normally wouldn’t involve deception or fakery.
The limits of knowledge are sometimes the limits of our tools.
The discovery of the nucleus and the Golgi apparatus required only a microscope;
the discover of other things that float in the protoplasm
waited until after the invention of the transmission electron microscope in 1931.
The limits of knowledge are sometimes the limits of our tools. The discovery of the nucleus and the Golgi apparatus required only a microscope; the discover of other things that float in the protoplasm waited until after the invention of the transmission electron microscope in 1931.
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