Reduction and Emergence

Scientists have had spectacular success with reductionism. Take something like a human muscle, peer inside, and there are the muscle cells, contracting and relaxing in unison. Peer inside the cells and Wnd actin and myosin polymers sliding past each other and generating the contractile forces in conjunction with ATP hydrolysis. Extract the polymers and discover that they’re made of actin and myosin subunit proteins. Purify the subunits and learn that they’re strands of amino acids that fold into shapes that allow them to interact with one another to generate force. Analyse the amino acids and encounter their component atoms and their bonding angles. Peer into the atoms, and it’s a whole new world again. And Wnally, take a creature like an amoeba, Wnd that the same kinds of actin and myosin proteins are propelling it along, and realize that our muscles are availing themselves of ancient evolutionary ideas.
ursula goodenough and terrence w. deacon Reduction and Emergence