Organic Molecule

Famous quotes containing the words organic molecule, organic and/or molecule:

    The following general definition of an animal: a system of different organic molecules that have combined with one another, under the impulsion of a sensation similar to an obtuse and muffled sense of touch given to them by the creator of matter as a whole, until each one of them has found the most suitable position for its shape and comfort.
    Denis Diderot (1713–1784)

    And what if all of animated nature
    Be but organic Harps diversely framed,
    That tremble into thought, as o’er them sweeps
    Plastic and vast, one intellectual breeze,
    At once the Soul of each, and God of all?
    Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)

    We can come up with a working definition of life, which is what we did for the Viking mission to Mars. We said we could think in terms of a large molecule made up of carbon compounds that can replicate, or make copies of itself, and metabolize food and energy. So that’s the thought: macrocolecule, metabolism, replication.
    Cyril Ponnamperuma (b. 1923)