Phenomenology and Ontology of the Molecular Concept (original) (raw)

Abstract

As a biochemist, I have been interested in the history of the ideas giving rise to what could be termed today the system of biochemistry. The system of biochemistry rests upon a few basic concepts, some borrowed from the field of chemistry, others specific to the interpretation of biology and biological phenomena in terms of chemistry, physics and thermodynamics. Amongst the first category the concept of molecule is obviously of prime importance and this paper will deal essentially with the history of the ideas leading to the contemporary views relating to the organization of matter. I shall only mention as belonging more narrowly to biochemistry the specificity of the catalytic processes leading to the organization of metabolic pathways in catenary sequences of reactions, their integration and control, the existence of pairs of relata, auto-organization and self reproduction, etc., all processes subtended by concepts such as those of macromolecule, molecular architecture or molecular anatomy, molecular anatomy of cells and the like. As far as my topic is concerned I shall therefore refer here more extensively only to the concept of macromolecule. In the first part of this paper I shall recall the long and arduous path leading ultimately to the idea of ordered entities at the microscopic level of dimension — the term microscopic being taken here in the sense of the physicists. Since order is also the rule in biology, from the ecosystem down to the molecule, and since this order is mainly the result of the existence of pairs of relata, one member of the couple being often, if not always, a macromolecule, I shall also describe how the concept of macromolecule was identified, starting with the work of Berzelius and Graham on the colloids and ending with the more recent concept of molecular biology, thus closing the circle since it brings us back to a field more akin to organic chemistry than biology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire de Biochimie Générale et Comparée, Université de Liège, 17, place Delcour, B-4020, Liège, Belgium
    E. Schoffeniels

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  1. E. Schoffeniels
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre de Mécanique Ondulatoire Appliquée, Laboratoire de Chimie Physique, CNRS and University of Paris, Paris, France
    Jean Maruani

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© 1988 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Schoffeniels, E. (1988). Phenomenology and Ontology of the Molecular Concept. In: Maruani, J. (eds) Molecules in Physics, Chemistry, and Biology. Topics in Molecular Organization and Engineering, vol 1. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-2849-7\_1

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