Taken to be decisive but did they find too much? The contemporary explanation of the origin of biological structures is a twisted, ladder-like mechanical template ironically discovered at the very time physics, the icon of mechanistic theories of nature, was well into a crisis of intelligibility. While concepts of the material world were fading deeper into abstraction and patterns of symmetry, the secret of life was suddenly revealed as a tinker toy molecular arrangement as buoyantly naive as Newtonian mechanics, and conspicuously like it.
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Another peculiarity of nuclear fission, in addition to prompt neutrons emitted immediately, is the small fraction of delayed neutrons that appear a fraction of a second after the fission event. This is eons compared to the time scale of the fission event itself. The violent release of nuclear fission energy is made possible by the prompt neutrons. The curiosity of delayed neutrons makes possible a more manageable release of nuclear energy. Some of us are inclined to think this is providential. In due time, nuclear energy may be all we have to support an advanced civilization.
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