[ExI] Ants for spike! Dawkins and Wilson

Eugen Leitl eugen at leitl.org
Sun Nov 15 10:47:35 UTC 2009


On Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 05:36:01PM -0800, spike wrote:

> Agreed.  We have two different fields of chemistry: biochemistry (sometimes

We have many fields of chemistry. Organic, inorganic, metallorganic,
physical, quantum, you name it.

> called organic chem) and everything else.  The everything else deals with

No, no, no. Organic chemistry is very different from biochemistry, which
is mostly molecular biology these days (metabolic pathways are almost
completely accounted for). There are some overlaps (an organic chemist
might use an enzymatic reaction), of course.

> all the elements, but carbon forms life, and is such an oddball exception
> that it gets its own field of study.  That field of study is actually bigger
> and more complex than the one that deals with all the other elements.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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