"Investigations during the last few decades have brought hydrogen instead of carbon, and instead of CO2 water, the mother of all life, into the foreground"
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A quiet revolt is tucked into this sentence: Szent-Gyorgyi is trying to dethrone the fashionable villain of modern chemistry and biology. Carbon and CO2 are the obvious protagonists in the textbook story of life (carbon-based molecules, carbon cycles, carbon emissions). He pivots the spotlight to hydrogen and water, implying that the real engine of biology isn’t just what organisms are made of, but how they move energy and electrons.
The wording matters. “Investigations during the last few decades” is a scientist’s way of claiming historical momentum without sounding polemical: the field itself, not personal opinion, has shifted the center of gravity. His swap is also a rhetorical demotion. Carbon becomes structural background; hydrogen becomes the currency of metabolism. In biochemistry, hydrogen transfer is shorthand for redox reactions, respiration, photosynthesis, and the whole choreography of life turning fuel into work. Water isn’t framed as scenery but as an active participant: solvent, temperature buffer, reaction medium, and in many systems a reagent. Calling it “the mother of all life” borrows a mythic register to dignify something so ubiquitous we forget it’s doing labor.
The subtext is a critique of reductionism-by-fashion. When a field gets fixated on one element (carbon) or one molecule (CO2), it risks mistaking a convenient accounting category for a causal explanation. Szent-Gyorgyi, a Nobel-winning biochemist steeped in metabolism, is arguing for a more dynamic picture: life as flow, not just architecture; chemistry as process, not just ingredients.
The wording matters. “Investigations during the last few decades” is a scientist’s way of claiming historical momentum without sounding polemical: the field itself, not personal opinion, has shifted the center of gravity. His swap is also a rhetorical demotion. Carbon becomes structural background; hydrogen becomes the currency of metabolism. In biochemistry, hydrogen transfer is shorthand for redox reactions, respiration, photosynthesis, and the whole choreography of life turning fuel into work. Water isn’t framed as scenery but as an active participant: solvent, temperature buffer, reaction medium, and in many systems a reagent. Calling it “the mother of all life” borrows a mythic register to dignify something so ubiquitous we forget it’s doing labor.
The subtext is a critique of reductionism-by-fashion. When a field gets fixated on one element (carbon) or one molecule (CO2), it risks mistaking a convenient accounting category for a causal explanation. Szent-Gyorgyi, a Nobel-winning biochemist steeped in metabolism, is arguing for a more dynamic picture: life as flow, not just architecture; chemistry as process, not just ingredients.
Quote Details
| Topic | Science |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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