Is There a Newton of the Blade of Grass ?

I n 1790, Immanuel Kant makes the famous statement in his critique of judgment: ‘‘there will never be a Newton of the blade of grass, because human science will never be able to explain how a living being can originate from inanimate matter’ [1]. The German naturalist Ernst Haeckel, about 70 years later, celebrates Charles Darwin to be such a ‘‘Newton of the grass blade’’ [2] Haeckel’s enthusiasm about Darwin was not shared among his contemporaries and is not too widespread today, although the path-breaking role of Darwin’s scholarly work is not the least doubted or questioned. The American philosopher, physicist, and molecular biologist, Evelyn Fox Keller, says that considering Darwin as the Newton of biology is simply wrong: [3] ‘‘Darwin himself has systematically avoided dwelling upon the question how life has originated from inanimate materials. Natural selection begins with a living cell.’’ Kant’s statement has a philosophical dimension and clearly addresses the popular origin-of-life [4] problem that will not be pursued further here. At the same time, Kant’s issue has a historical and a technical scientific issue, which boils down to the problem of erecting modern biology on a solid basement of physics and chemistry supported by mathematics or in other words, bridging the gap between physics and chemistry on one side and biology on the other. Precisely, it is the relation between mathematics, physics, and biology that we shall try to illustrate in the light of historical developments and present-day life sciences. Why are the relations between physics and mathematics and biology and mathematics as different as they could be? The alliance between mathematics and physics stands at the beginning of Western science and this ‘‘marriage’’ has proven to be extremely stable and fruitful. Two well-known quotations of past statements explain the situation perfectly: Galileo Galilei said (in abridged version): ‘‘The great book of Nature is written in (clearly-understood) mathematics,’’ and Immanuel Kant expressed his esteem for mathematics in science in the phrase: ‘‘I maintain PETER SCHUSTER