Atomistic claims are the most audacious of all: the scientist is proposing a fundamental reorganization of a world into unitary entities. Atoms. Genes. Cells. You have to think of a cell in a different manner: not as an object under a lens but as a functional site for all physiological chemical reactions, as an organizing unit for all tissues, and as the unifying locus for physiology and pathology. You have to move from a continuous organization of the biological world to a description that involves discontinuous, discrete, autonomous elements that unify that world. Metaphorically, we might
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