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Essay
Nature 446, 379 (22 March 2007) | doi:10.1038/446379a; Published online 21 March 2007
Connections Frontier at your fingertips
Piers Coleman1
- Piers Coleman is in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rutgers University, 136 Frelinghuysen Road, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854-8019, USA.
Abstract
Between the nano- and micrometre scales, the collective behaviour of matter can give rise to startling emergent properties that hint at the nexus between biology and physics.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy famously features a supercomputer, Deep Thought, that after millions of years spent calculating "the answer to the ultimate question of life, the Universe and everything", reveals it to be 42. Douglas Adams's cruel parody of reductionism holds a certain sway in physics today.
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