Archimedes by Lancelot Law Whyte — Read

Questions are often made unnecessarily difficult by their being expressed in an abstract or theoretical form, and instead of asking What is life? it will be more valuable to put forward a practical issue for discussion: Could an infinitely wise physicist order the necessary chemicals to-day, and to-morrow put together a synthetic man? If not, why not? What are we really up against, that seems to put some aspects of life beyond our control?

Let us watch this ambitious physicist as he enters his laboratory. He has started quite easily and has in a moment prepared some simple molecules from their elements. Now he has completed the first colloid that he will require, and is starting on his first organic synthesis. But his infinite wisdom does not give him eternity within a minute, and we notice that he is getting on more slowly. While the actual combination of the first molecules took only about a thousandth of a second, once he had the apparatus ready, the simplest colloid took about a second. The organic colloid has taken him about a minute; it seems that nature won't work faster than that. She has her own rhythm and won't be rushed. If we wait patiently till the end of the day our friend may have his first speck of protoplasm, and all the skill in the world would only have helped him to make more of it, not to have got any further in his game of evolution.