Stephane Leduc

The Mechanism of Life Stephane Leduc

This is a faithful reprint of the original English edition, complete with all illustrations. - French biologist Stéphane Leduc (1853-1939) was a professor at the École de Médecine de Nantes and worked on osmotic crystallisation and the physiological effects of electric current. Leduc wanted to understand the chemical and physical mechanisms of life, in the new field of synthetic biology. He believed that it is necessary to appreciate biological processes from a physical perspective and constructed models from physics and chemistry to try to explain development and growth. With ingenious combinations of chemicals he was able to produce systems which mimicked the appearance of living processes. Although these models were largely unsuccessful, Leduc's researches are a chapter in the history of science which deserves to be remembered and investigated.