skill and philosophical system might not seem like kindred exercise at first glimpse , but much of what a scientist does is about studying the “ cardinal nature of noesis , world , and existence . ” Even less obvious is the intersection of scientific discipline and humor , but biophysicist Harold Morowitz certainly brought a sense of witticism to his job , and married these many elements into a life ’s work .
bear in 1927 in Poughkeepsie , New York , Morowitz spend most of his donnish career at Yale . He catch his Bachelor of Science in — you estimate it — aperient and philosophy , followed by an M.S. in cathartic , and a Ph.D. in biophysics , all from Yale , by the clip he was 23 years old . After stints at the National Bureau of Standards and the National Heart Institute , he then became a professor at Yale until 1987 , when he move to George Mason University . Morowitz was also a fecund author ; he was the founding editor in chief - in - head of the journalComplexity , author or co - author 19 books , and write a democratic science column for the magazineHospital Practice .
Among his many Bible was 1968’sEnergy Flow in Biology , which approached biology with a focus on thermodynamics , and put forth the possibility that " the Energy Department that flows through a scheme acts to organize that system , ” a groundbreaking conception that proved to be his expectant legacy . AsThe New York Timesreports , this thought extended beyond understanding the descent of life on Earth , and made the case for the likeliness of extraterrestrial life .
Morowitz ’s miscellaneous sense of curiosity was also manifest in the people who influenced him . TheTimesnotes that he was inspired byPierre Teilhard de Chardin , a somewhat controversial “ mid-20th - hundred Jesuit paleontologist who evolve the idea of the Omega Point , his term for a level of spiritual consciousness and material complexity toward which he believe the world was evolving . ”
A person is also defined by those they influence in twist , and Morowitz did pretty well in that regard : His bookman James E. Rothman won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2013 , and drop a line about Morowitz in hisautobiograpyfor the Nobel Prize internet site , trace his instructor as an intellect with veer - boundary interests as well as " personal warmth and appealingness . "
Elsewhere in his study relate heat energy , Morowitz took a look atThe Thermodynamics of Pizza(1991)—specifically , how riotous one gets dusty in zero gravity . That was n’t his only foray into the nutrient human beings : A 1985 book was calledMayonnaise and The Origin of Life : Thoughts of Minds and Molecules .
Morowitz also served as a longtime adviser for NASA , lick on everything from the Apollo missions to the moonlight to the Viking missions to Mars , and on projects such asBiosphere 2 . In 1983 , he come out as a scientific expert in theMcLean v. Arkansascase ( sometimes call " Scopes II " ) andtestifiedthat creationism should not be taught in public school , specifically for its misuse of thesecond law of thermodynamics .
Some also accredit Morowitz with discovering a candidate for afourth practice of law of thermodynamics , called Morowitz ’s cycling law , whichstates that“In the unwavering state systems , the flow of vim through the system from a rootage to a sink will take to at least one round in the system . "
Morowitz died in March at eld 88 . Heworked until the very endof his sprightliness , and currently has a posthumous book come out calledThe Origin and Nature of Life on Earth . In acommencement savoir-faire , Morowitz once order , “ Conformity is not needs a sexual morality . Hard workplace is almost never frailty . Hopefulness is a moral imperative . And , a sense of humor help . ”
